A female legal practitioner, Ms Stella Oyiogu, has been dragged before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) over alleged willful misconduct.
Nigeria’s leading statesmen, including General Yakubu Gowon, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, and the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Barkindo Aliyu Mustafa, dragged the lawyer before the disciplinary committee.
Already, Oyiogu is expected to appear before the LPDC on Thursday to answer a petition regarding an alleged fraudulent transfer of Abuja plot of land belonging to the Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA).
Meanwhile, the police have slammed a five-count misconduct charge against Ms Oyiogu and some of her alleged collaborators in the alleged fraudulent act.
The five-count charge dated September 27, 2024, was filed by Abdurashid Isaku Sidi of the Legal/Prosecution section, Force Headquarters, dated September 27, 2024.
Among the personalities in the police’s alleged fraud case are one of Abuja’s biggest land developers, Linus Ukachukwu, Ibrahim Salmanu, who was said to have falsely presented himself as a trustee of Barewa Old Boys Association, and Professor Ahmed Tijani Mora, the former secretary general of the old boys’ school association.
Barewa College, Zaria, is the premier secondary school in Northern Nigeria. Its old boys’ association includes some of the country’s leading lights, including five former presidents and the head of state.
The defendants are alleged to have collaborated among themselves to divest the association of a prime plot of land allocated to it in the Central District of Abuja in 1983.
The land in the trust of the General Gowon-led Board of Trustees was sometimes reallocated to Haida Properties in 2007. Two years later, in 2009, the same plot of land was reallocated to Eagle Aluminum belonging to Mr Linus Ukachukwu, who was unknown to the BOBA board of trustees.
Sometime in 2012, the then secretary of BOBA, Professor Tijani Ahmed Mora, was alleged to have acted on behalf of BOBA and surrendered the land to Eagle Aluminium without the consent of the larger national executive committee and, indeed, the Gowon-led BOT upon whom the assets of the association are vested.
The NEC and other association members learned that the association had lost the land in 2017 and approached the then Minister of FCT Mohammed Bello, who considered the association’s appeal and restored the land’s title to BOBA.
However, HAIDA Properties and Eagle Aluminium had gone to court and drawn up an agreement to jointly develop the land without considering the interest of BOBA, whose title to the land had now been restored.
Following a petition by a new BOBA executive to the police, an investigation unearthed malpractices on the part of past association officials, the former secretary general of the association, Prof Mora, and past president Ibrahim Salmanu, who falsely presented himself as a member of the association’s BOT. They have now been charged to an FCT High court with Ukachukwu and Oyiogu for conspiracy and fraud.
Some of the five counts against the defendants read: “That you, Ibrahim Salmanu, Linus Ukachukwu, Prof. Ahmed Tjani Mora and Chioma Stella Oyiogu conspired with yourself on or about the year 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court contrary to section 96 and punishable under section 97 of the Penal Code Act.
In count two, the prosecution alleged that the defendants; “On or about the year 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently and dishonestly made and filled series of court processes before a High Court in Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/363/2013 deceiving the said court to believe that the court processes were endorsed and authorised by officers of Barewa Old Boys Association and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 362 (a) and punishable under section 364 of the Penal Code Act.
While Ahmed Tijani was charged as a sole defendant in counts three and four, Chioma Stella Oyiogu was charged as a sole defendant in counts five.
The count reads: “That you, Ahmed Tijjani Mora, on or about the year 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this court being entrusted with the duty of care the Barewa Old Boys Association organisation as its secretary general did dishonestly misappropriated the said trust placed on you when you unilaterally without consulting the executives of the said organisation and acting in breach of its constitution on its property Plot 291 within Central Area (A00) District transmitted a letter you addressed to Eagle Aluminium Industries Ltd referenced BOBA/LM/VOL.1/0510/13 and dated 5th October 2013 disposing the proprietary interest of Barewa Old Boys Association and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 311 and punishable under section 312 of the Penal Code Act.
“That you, Prof. Ahmed Tijani Mora, on or about the year 2012 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court being entrusted with the duty of care by the Barewa Old Boys Association as the organisation’s secretary general did dishonestly misappropriate the said trust placed on you when you unilaterally without consulting the executives of the said organisation and acting in breach of its constitution on its property Plot 291 within Central Area (AOO) District transmitted a letter you addressed to Eagle Aluminium Industries Ltd referenced BOBA/LM/VOL.1/27/10/13 and dated 27th October 2013 disposing the proprietary interest of Barewa Old BOys Association and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 311 and punishable under section 312 of the Penal Code Act.
‘That you, Chioma Stella Oyiogu, on or about the year 2013 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently and dishonestly made and filed series of court processes before a High Court in Abuja Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/363/2013 deceiving the said court to believe that you were endorsed and authorised by officers of Barewa Old Boys Association to represent it in the said case luring the court to strip the association of its proprietary right in its property Plot 291 within Central Area (A00) District and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 (a) and punishable under section 324 of the Penal Code Act.
Underlying the case is the alleged conspiracy between a former association official and others to strip the association of the prime land allocated to it in 1983.
The care of the land was vested in the Gowon-led Board of Trustees and not the NEC of the association.
Prof Mora, a former association secretary, is alleged to have fraudulently surrendered the land to an Abuja developer.
The association later became aware of this and reported the matter to the police.
