According to a report by SaharaReporters, Arthur Eze, the Nigerian billionaire businessman, has offered for sale a fully detached duplex house belonging to his nephew, Prince Olisa Eze. He did this after evicting his nephew’s family without any valid court order. The house located at No. 5 Ifeanyi Ararume Street, Mabushi, Abuja was said to be offered for sale for the sum of N300million. Arthur on January 23, 2023 allegedly sent thugs and armed policemen for the second time to forcibly evict Olisa’s family from the property despite a notice of appeal pending before an appeal court seeking a stay of execution from taking possession of his property.
He claimed to be carrying out the purported judgment delivered by Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi of FCT high court on the final forfeiture of the house. The incident occurred on Monday when over 20 policemen alongside hoodlums forcibly broke the gate and gained access into the house. Some of the hoodlums reportedly scaled the fence, looted properties, unleashed mayhem on the occupants and threw out their belongings from the house.
It was gathered that the hoodlums in their number wielded dangerous weapons and were accompanied by the policemen who also supervised the attack. The policemen reportedly watched the hoodlums hit the gate with hammers, forcing it open before gaining entry into the house. Olisa said he has been receiving strange calls from people telling him that they got information that the property had been put up for sale for N300million.
The operation which lasted for about six hours was said to have been carried out without a valid warrant or execution order from any court.
SaharaReporters gathered that the billionaire is working in cahoots with the new FCT police commissioner, Sadiq Idris Abubakar who ordered the deployment of over 30 armed policemen to carry out the illegal eviction.
It was learnt that after the FCT police commissioner in connivance with the OC Legal authorised the illegal eviction, he summoned the two parties to a meeting where the commissioner revealed that he acted based on the legal advice from the police legal department.
Meanwhile the commissioner could not produce any execution order as requested by Olisa’s lawyer during the meeting.
He eventually confronted the commissioner of police with a notice of appeal and motion for stay of execution pending before the Court of Appeal.
Olisa said the commissioner ought to have done his due diligence based on the directive as stated in a letter from Inspector General of Police before carrying out the execution as the matter is still pending at the Court of Appeal.
On September 1, 2022, Arthur led a detachment of armed policemen to Olisa’s house and evicted his wife and children but failed to produce the court order authorising the operation.
The FCT high court through the Director of Enforcement, Chukwuemeka Toni Ubani, in a letter dated September 22, 2022 denied issuing any warrant of execution or being in possession of a Certified True Copy (CTP) of the warrant.
Olisa asked Nigerians to hold Arthur responsible in case anything untoward happened to his family. He said he had been receiving strange phone calls since Monday, adding that his life was in danger.
SaharaReporters had exclusively published a letter dated August 26, 2022, signed by Barrister Chukwudi Oli and addressed to the Inspector General of Police by the Mr. Arthur Eze, requesting 30 police officers to enforce the order of final forfeiture made by the FCT high court on April 28, 2022, in suit No. FCT/HC/M/5661/2022.
The letter read in part, “We request to be availed with thirty (30) policemen for enforcement in the recovery of the properties of Olisaebuka Okwuchkwu Eze and Onyeka Nnadozie Eze handed over to our client by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission pursuant to an order of final forfeiture by the high court of FCT Abuja holding at Gudu before M.R. Osho – Adebiyi on April 28th 2022 in the above-mentioned matter.”
Arthur in November 2020 dragged his two nephews before a Federal Capital Territory High Court after he accused them of fraudulently diverting money from his business for their personal use.
He described the rumour as laughable and ridiculous just as he called on unsuspecting members of the public to be wary of dubious and fraudulent people who are parading themselves as agents on the property. He said the property was not for sale as being peddled around, urging the public to ignore the information. According to him, whoever does any business with any agent in respect of the property does so at their own risk.
Olisa’s wife, Amarachi, who was at home when the attackers arrived, lamented that she was traumatised by the experience, after watching as their belongings were thrown out of the house.
Amarachi said, “They came to evict us again from our house. The police brought those street urchins (trunk pushers) and they allowed them to break the gate to loot and throw out our properties. “They said they are carrying out final forfeiture order and we asked them to show us the copy of the execution order but the police couldn’t produce it and that the order is from above.
“We are homeless as I am talking to you and the children are going through emotional and traumatic experiences as a result of the attack. The children were not allowed to enter the house when they came back from the school. They met their things outside.”
