September 18, (THEWILL) – The last has obviously not been heard of the conflict involving former co-owners of AMEN Estate, Sade Balogun, and her politician ex-husband, Babatunde Gbadamosi. From tussling for fair equity in the ownership of AMEN Estate which is originally owned by Balogun, via the courts, to a case of an alleged threat to life and character assassination.
The issues surrounding the conflict are endless. The last issue which they bickered about was Balogun accusing Gbadamosi of attempting to humiliate her and hang an alleged attempted murder case on her neck. The issue has now escalated to a petition to the Attorney-General of Lagos State.
THEWILL recalls that a few months ago, Balogun who is the boss of Redbrick Homes International Limited, the parent company of AMEN Estate, accused Gbadamosi of conspiring to frame her up in a case involving a threat to life.
It all started after a certain Bidoun Abdul, a sibling to a certain Yinka Igbinoba who is a business partner to both Balogun and Gbadamosi, approached Hon Saheed Audullahi Mosaduluwa, the CEO of Harmony Gardens and Estate Development Limited to purchase a property.
The said property was worth N120 million. Abdul committed herself to the purchase with an N30 million down payment with a pledge to pay the balance within two weeks. But within 48 hours of the first payment, Abdul and Igbinoba began to demand a refund, claiming that the Certificate of Occupancy, which is the title of Mosaduluwa’s land, was forged and that the Lagos State Land Bureau informed them that the Certificate of Occupancy was about to be revoked.
A few days later, they wrote a petition against Mosaduluwa to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), accusing him of fraud. According to Mosaduluwa, their supposed discovery of the originality of the C of O was strange to him because it was a false accusation.
He nevertheless visited the EFCC to puncture Abdul’s frivolous petition and false accusation and based on facts with evidence, he was released on self-recognition. He, however, demanded that the EFCC investigate and also prosecute the false information.
Not wanting any more drama from Abdul and her sister, Igbinoba, Mosaduluwa refunded N15 million out of the N30 million with an understanding that the frivolous petition at the EFCC would be withdrawn.
At this point, both Mosaduluwa and Igbinoba approached Balogun to intervene in the matter. Balogun in good faith accepted to step in as an arbitrator between the two warring parties.
Unfortunately, according to Mosaduluwa, he did not know that what Abdul and her sister, Igbinoba were doing was a well-rehearsed drama with Gbadamosi to set him and Balogun up. Things turned messy after Igbinoba got involved in an accident.
Shortly after, he was invited to different police stations where he was accused of fraud and attempted murder. Igbinoba’s mum accused him of being behind the accident, which shattered her daughter’s legs and led to her undergoing surgery.
When he asked for evidence of the shattered legs and the surgery, he was told that it would be presented in court as evidence. It was then, according to him, that their game plan dawned on him.
While Balogun tried to resolve their conflict, Igbinoba according to Mosaduluwa connived with Gbadamosi to write a petition to the Inspector-General of Police, the Attorney-General of the State, and Commissioner for Justice, as well as the National Human Right Commission, claiming that both Balogun and Mosaduluwa were after her life and they should both be held responsible for any injustice committed against her.
Balogun not only refuted Igbinoba’s accusation, but she also claimed that her ex-husband was behind Igbinoba’s petition against her and that he had been trying to ruin her image since she expelled him from their matrimonial home and real estate business.
She said that Gbadamosi had been trying to take his pound of flesh by getting back at her after she kicked him out of her life and the business they both ran together. She alleged that the two connived and twisted her role in the peacekeeping mission to that of someone trying to take Igbinoba’s life.
She claimed her ex-husband saw an opportunity to malign her image which was why he collaborated with Igbinoba, to accuse her wrongly. She further revealed that Gbadamosi went as far as sending messages to her domestic staff boasting that Balogun would go to jail.
Balogun alleged that her estranged husband created different Facebook accounts to bully her. It is worthy to note that Mosaduluwa became a director in Redbrick Homes International Limited after the company expunged Gbadamosi as its chairman.
This allegedly led to the grudge that Gbadamosi holds against Balogun and Mosaduluwa and he allegedly began to incite public hatred against Balogun through defamatory publications, cyberstalking and cyberbullying on different social handles and media, and the latest trumped-up charges.
These latest trumped-up charges prompted Mosaduluwa to write a protest petition to the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the Directorate of Public Prosecution over alleged victimization on the allegation that he duped and attempted to murder Igbinoba.
According to the petition, the DPP has been misled by the instruction of the AG of Lagos State to charge Mosadoluwa for bodily harm and Balogun for breach of peace with a concocted investigated report from the police force led by ACP Musa Ibraheem of IGP Monitoring Units.
In the petition written through his lawyers, Yakubu Eleto Chambers, Mosaduluwa stated that two different, dictated, frivolous police investigation reports were written to the Lagos State AG and Commissioner for Justice by Musa in connivance with Gbadamosi, along with some police officers to indict him and Balogun.
Mosaduluwa in his petition claimed that Gbadamosi engaged persons to help plant evidence in his estates for blackmail, but his plot got busted. The petition alleged that Gbadamosi used Igbinoba to trap and frame up Mosadoluwa and Balogun, adding that he deceived people handling the case with promises to dash them apartments in Amen Estate once he takes over from his ex-wife, after the courts must have ruled on their divorce case in his favour.
In other words, rather than conduct a fair and unbiased investigation of the matter, some officers are determined to imprison Mosaduluwa and Balogun based on trumped-up charges. Mosaduluwa is therefore seeking an annulment of the investigative report by the IGP Monitoring Team and reassignment of the case involving Igbinoba, himself, and Balogun, to another team without vested interest and for justice to be served.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
