Lagos court jails couple 14 years each for estate property fraud
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A Lagos State Special Offences Court has sentenced a couple to 14 years each and ordered them to refund N67.66 million over the unauthorised sale of a property belonging to the beneficiaries of a deceased estate.
A Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a couple, Harry Uyanwanne and Oluwakemi Odia, also known as Kristein Uyanwanne, to 14 years' imprisonment each over a N67.66 million fraud involving a property belonging to the beneficiaries of the estate of the late Dr Moshood Babatunde Odemuyiwa.
Justice Mojisola Dada delivered the judgment on Monday and ordered the convicts to refund the entire N67,659,592 to the petitioner, Olusola Odemuyiwa, after finding them guilty of conspiracy, stealing and obtaining money by false pretence. The judge discharged the couple on a separate count bordering on forgery.
The prosecution, instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's Lagos Zonal Directorate 1, centred on the sale of a property at No. 19, Murtala Mohammed Way, Ebute Meta, Oyingbo, Lagos. The EFCC alleged that the defendants sold the property in 2010 for N16 million without authorisation from the rightful beneficiaries of the deceased's estate, having falsely represented that they had been authorised to dispose of it.
Delivering judgment, Justice Dada held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted the defendants on three of the four counts. Each convict received three years for conspiracy, one year for stealing and 10 years for obtaining money by false pretence, terms that add up to 14 years and carry no option of fine.
Prosecution counsel Fadeke Giwa called three witnesses and tendered documentary exhibits in support of the allegations. The case is one of a series of estate and land-fraud prosecutions brought by the EFCC in Lagos, where disputed inheritance property and double sales remain a recurring source of litigation.