According to the Sun….
Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike who has
been thrown out of his rented apartment
in Magodo GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, over his
inability to pay an accumulated three year
rent of N8.5 million.
The apartment, a twin duplex located at 1,
Raji Oladimeji Street, Magodo GRA, was
until his ejection, used by Emeka to run
his business.
Emeka had in 2007 diversified by
establishing a secondary school named St
Nicholas College and decided to hire the
premises on a five-year lease agreement
from an 87-year-old retiree, Chief Samuel
Agboola Akintan at the rate of N2 million
per annum for the first two years and N3
million annually for the remaining three
years, bringing the total rent of five years
to N13 million.
Saturday Sun gathered that Emeka was
able to get his landlord accept a deposit
of N2 million with a promise to pay the
rest later. Trouble, however, started when
a year after moving in, the popular actor
began to default and at a point issued a
dud cheque of N1.5 million.
To force Emeka to pay his money and
eject him from the property, Chief Akintan
through his company, Samak Investments
Ltd, had to drag the actor to the Ikeja
Magistrate court.Without much delay, the
court had on November 22, last year
ordered the actor to vacate the premises
but his refusal to heed the order led the
court Sheriff to carry out execution of the
judgment on January 24 this year when
his property was thrown out.
Speaking to Saturday Sun, the
octogenarian chairman of Samak
Investment Ltd, Chief Akintan wondered
why the actor chose to be a pain in his
neck
He said:
“I never knew this gentleman from Adam.
He just came to my house with his wife
and I was worried about who he was and
my children came to me, saying, Emeka
Ike, we know him daddy; he is a nice
gentleman. That is how I fell into his
hands.”
“When I wanted to take the matter to
court, Emeka wrote a letter on February
15, 2012, pleading that I’m his father and
that I should halt any court process
against him. Even this N2.5 million was
paid in 2011, a year to the expiration of
the five- year lease. After that, he issued a
N1.5 million Zenith bank, Eric Moore
branch cheque in my name, dated May
20, 2012, which bounced.“Some people
advised me to take him to Special Fraud
Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria police; I refused
because this boy is a young boy like my
son, why would I do that to him; that he
should leave my property.”
“After the cheque bounced, my lawyer
called him over the phone, he started
abusing me, threatening to deal with the
lawyer and me. I never looked at what he
was owing me in the past but should pay
this N1.5 million. If I were to calculate his
arrears, he has to pay far more but I am
just satisfied with this N1.5 million.”
He said the recommendation from his
children made him enter into the lease
agreement of five years which was to
expire in 2012. According to him,
“he was supposed to pay for the first two
years N2 million each per annum and the
subsequent three years N3 million per
annum. The total rent for that period of
five years should be N13 million. He paid
N2 million for the first year and never
paid again until three years later when he
paid only N4.5 million and the balance
should be N 8.5 million.”
“I can’t walk, so the two times I went
there, I was carried like a baby to the
court and Emeka didn’t come, but my
lawyer went there three times. The
magistrate at Igbosere wrote back to the
one at Ikeja to go ahead with the matter
since Emeka didn’t come.
“We went back to the first court and after
several adjournments, neither Emeka nor
his lawyer put up appearance and we
were asked to give our evidence and we
did, thereafter, the judgment was
delivered.
“To give Emeka another opportunity, we
got judgment in November 22, but the
magistrate in her wisdom said we should
give him one month to enable him to get
himself together and move out. We were
supposed to take possession by
December 20, 2013 but we didn’t until
January 24, when the Commissioner of
Police gave us three policemen led by an
Assistant Superintendent of Police to
follow the Court Sheriff to eject him. They
ejected him and put his property
outside.”
When Emeka heard of this unsavoury
development, he was said to have gone to
Magodo police station and reported that
thugs invaded his property after which
the police arrested the two guards the
landlord had stationed there.
“When in January I went to the premises,
even the teachers complained that they
had never seen him for many months and
had not paid them salaries for nine
months.
“While I was in Ondo, I got a phone call
that Ekeka came to Lagos and went to
Magodo police station and reported that
thugs invaded his property. Police went
there and arrested the guards and he put
his own guards and locked the place.”
Sounding emotional, Chief Akintan said:
“I’m a sick man; diabetic for 37 years. I
will be 87 by my next birthday and can’t
walk. I live at the grace of doctors and
what nature can allow me to have. I’m
immobile. I had to come back to Lagos to
start another process to dislodge him.
When I spoke to the DPO, Magodo police
station and tendered documents, he said,
so, ‘Emeka came here to tell him lies.’
“We have filed a contempt of court against
him. We have taken possession of the
property and about renovating it.
He is going about telling people that the
place was not completed when he moved
in that he put over N200 million to build
it. He has done a lot of damage to the
property. I sent my contractor to assess
the damage; he told me that I needed
between N10 million and N13 million for
renovation.
“I have sympathy for Emeka, but
unfortunately, he has no sympathy for
himself. Emeka went to court to plead
that the judgment should be set aside,
that I received a kangaroo judgment; that
the case should be retried. The court
dismissed it, saying it was abuse of court
process.
I don’t know what Emeka would do again.
I have never seen a character like that
before.
“His former landlord, Dr Shofoluwe was
in the same position with me. He is
looking for Emeka to pay N3.5 million rent
arrears. He was ejected legally. This is the
type of man coming to trouble me now
and I don’t need cheap publicity.”
When Emeka Ike was contacted, he said
“there is a position now, because I don’t
want people who have not achieved
anything in their lives to use unnecessary
distractions to gain prominence. It is my
money and investments and it is not a
national crisis.
Maybe people who think I have a larger
than life image are trying to use it to
make a point and I want to handle it as
legal as possible.”
He noted that there can be challenges in
business, stressing that he is still in
possession of the school.He added that
only two entities can close down a school,
either the government or the owner of the
school stressing that none of that has
happened.
“I’m still in possession of the school. It is
only the government that has the right to
shut down the school if it feels that I’m
not capable and I, as the CEO, if I feel
that I can’t do it again. Nobody can shut
down the school and the case is in court.
It should not be seen as a national crisis,
I have my business in Abuja and I’m
doing very well and right now I don’t like
distraction,”
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