The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has assumed control of the criminal case filed by the police against Ghanaian directors of JonahCapital Limited, owners of the disputed River Park Estate in Abuja.
On June 25, the Nigeria Police Force filed a 26-count charge before an FCT High Court in Gwarinpa against JonahCapital directors Sam Jonah, Kojo Ansah, Victor Quainoo, alongside Mobus Property Nigeria Ltd and their Nigerian lawyer, Abu Arome. They were accused of forging company ownership documents.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, state counsel Aderonke Imana informed the court that the AGF had directed her office to take over the matter pursuant to Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution. “I have the instructions of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation to take over the case from the Nigeria Police Force so that we can review the case file, given the volume of letters and petitions received,” she said. She also noted that the police had not yet released the case file to the AGF.
Without any objection, Justice Modupe-Osho Adebiyi granted the request and adjourned the case to November 11 for further proceedings.
However, JonahCapital directors and their lawyer pushed back against the charges, warning against what they described as attempts to criminalise routine Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) filings and land disputes. They recalled that in May, they had publicly alerted subscribers and the general public that the police were attempting to suppress the findings of a 10-man investigation panel that earlier reviewed similar forgery claims by Paul Odili of Paulo Homes, a rival claimant in the dispute.
They further argued that the latest charges were based on a fresh report compiled by the Head of the IGP Monitoring Unit, DCP Akin Fakorede, which they said indicted them without affording them a fair hearing.