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 landlordhad 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 kangaroojudgment; 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 forEmeka 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,”
