A Lagos based legal practitioner, Kole Bello, and three others
who were prosecuted by the Lagos State Government on land fraud
charges have been discharged and acquitted by a High Court in
Ikeja.
The defendants, who were docked before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo
of the Ikeja High Court, were set free by the court on the ground
that the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
Bello stood trial alongside three others, Chukwu Victor, Friday
Palmer, and Osumah Terry, for allegedly selling a landed property
in Lekki, belonging to a deceased woman, Mrs. Francisca
Awolaja.
They were docked on a three-count charge bordering on
conspiracy, fraud, and forgery filed against them by the state
government in October 2017.
In the charge, Bello and others were alleged to have forged a
Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) with reference number 63/63/1989,
dated September 28, 1989, of landed property in Lekki, belonging to
late Mrs Francisca Awolaja.
The defendants were also accused of impersonating the late
Awolaja in order to fraudulently sell her land to one Mr Rotimi
Olubeko for the sum of N5 million.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the trial, prosecution called five witnesses to testify
against the defendants, with all four of the accused testifying for
themselves in proving their innocence.
Delivering judgment, Justice Taiwo held that the defendants only
acted in their professional capacities in the sale of the property
in question.
“It is very clear that the document (C of O) used for the sale
of the land was forged, but the prosecution failed to prove case of
forgery, conspiracy and fraud pressed against the defendants. From
the evidences and exhibits before the court, it only show that all
the defendants acted in the various professional capacities in
facilitating the sale of the land in question. So, therefore, I
hereby discharge and acquit them,” the judge ruled.
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