“When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unskillful in the world’s false forgeries”
-William Shakespeare,
The Passionate Pilgrim
When
the Banker met the Maiden in the early 1990s, it was love at first sight, at
least on the part of the banker. Mahmoud Attah was the Banker. Chinye Ezeanah
was the Maiden. Attah was however not just an ordinary banker. He was a super
banker. In fact, he was the chairman of one of the biggest banks in Nigeria at
the time.
Chinye
was as beautiful as she was elegant. She was described by one of the witnesses as
‘fine and charming’. Theirs was a story described by the Supreme Court as a story of so much love and so much pain. But at the time, neither Attah nor Chinye knew that what
started as love at first sight would end up in court as a landmark case.
It
was not exactly clear when they met. The chairman claimed they met in 1991.
Chinye claimed it was in 1993. According to her, it was at her younger sister’s
boyfriend’s house that they met and it was in January 1993. The chairman saw
the beautiful lady who was ‘fine and charming’
and became besotted. He asked her to be his girlfriend. Chinye refused on that
day. The chairman however refused to take no for an answer.
They
went on as father and daughter. The chairman became the guardian. The maiden
became his ward. With time, Chinye agreed to become his girlfriend. Attah must
have been elated. He lavished love and money on the object of his affection. He
rented an apartment for her in Maitama, Abuja. At the time when telephone was
the exclusive preserve of the rich and a status symbol, the apartment had an
installed telephone, courtesy of Alhaji Attah.
To
ensure that the love of his life lacked nothing, Attah dedicated a protocol liaison
officer of the bank where he was chairman to her. He introduced Chinye to the
officer as his fiancée. It was the responsibility of the officer to run errands
on behalf of the chairman for the maiden. These errands included sending the
maiden money to settle her bills and other sundry assignments.
There
was however a small problem. Attah was already married. His family got wind of
the relationship between him and Chinye. Naturally they were not happy.
Chinye’s family was also not particularly excited. Her mother specifically
wanted to know the direction the relationship was going.
It
was at this point that Chinye broached the issue of marriage with her lover and
benefactor. Attah was however not ready to formally marry her. According to
her, “on several occasions I raise it [issue of marriage] he would say he had
problems as to his sperm count. He went on telling me that he would encourage
me to get a husband and that he would sponsor the marriage.”
With
pressure coming from his family, Attah decided to send his love to England for
further studies. Of course, Alhaji Attah was not a stranger to Her Majesty’s
country. He had a house in London. He also had other businesses there. His last
son, at that time, was also in London. This was coupled with the fact that the
bank of which he was the chairman also had a branch in the United Kingdom.
Chinye therefore left for London, courtesy of her mentor who also visited her
often.
If
that was all, perhaps you would not be sitting down today scrolling down your
device to read this story. Perhaps, Onigegewura would have been writing about another
incident. Perhaps, there would not have been any story to write in the first
place. Perhaps…
As
it happened, Chinye applied for land allocation in the Federal Capital Territory.
She paid the prescribed fee of N300. In the early ‘90s, N300 was a princely
sum. The payment was made in 1993. It was however not the signature of Chinye
that was on the portion meant for signature of applicant. It was the name of
Alhaji Attah and his signature. It was however stated on the form that he signed for
Miss Chinye. Thus, the name of Alhaji Attah appeared above that of Chinye. I
hope you understand.
When
a new Minister was appointed for the Federal Capital Territory, he introduced
additional fee of N6,700. This payment was also made by Chinye and she was
issued receipts for the two sums paid. The two receipts were in her name. With
payment completed and with Chinye being out of the country, Alhaji Attah began
to follow up on the processing of the file.
Finally,
the certificate of occupancy in respect of the land was ready. Since Alhaji
Attah was the person known to the authorities as being the one facilitating the
processing of the file, the certificate was sent to him. In turn, Attah sent a
copy of the certificate to his lover through her sister. Everybody was happy.
With
the support of Attah, Chinye successfully completed her study in the
United Kingdom and returned to Nigeria in 1997.
In April
1999, Attah was shocked to the marrows when he learnt that his lover and
girlfriend had secretly gotten married, not to him but to another person. Attah thought it was an expensive April fool’s joke. He conducted a discreet
investigation and he found out that it was actually true. In fact, the marriage
had been contracted a year earlier in 1998.
Chinye
must have assumed that Attah would be pleased with her decision to get married.
After all, he had told her to get a husband and that he would sponsor the
wedding. She therefore went to her former lover to get the certificate of
occupancy in respect of her prime property. It was however the turn of Chinye
to be shocked when Attah informed her that the land was gotten for her on the
condition that she would marry him. Having breached the promise to him, she was
no longer entitled to the land.
That
was not all. Chinye also learnt that Attah was trying to alter the name on the
certificate of occupancy. It therefore became apparent to her that the chairman
was determined not to release the land and the certificate of occupancy to her. Her fears were soon confirmed
when she visited the property in question and saw a building being erected on
the land. She did the most natural and legal thing. She went to court.
In
court, her case was pretty straightforward. She was the owner of the land.
Application for the land was made in her name. Receipts for the payments were
issued in her name. The land was allocated to her. There was no agreement to
marry her lover who had in fact encouraged her to look for another man to
marry.
To
her surprise, the chairman maintained his ground that they both agreed to get
married and that it was based on this marriage contract that Attah sponsored
her for further studies in England, paid all the school fees and supported her
throughout her stay until she returned to Nigeria in 1997. That was not all.
The chairman also claimed to have incorporated companies and got allocation of
shops and plots of land as well as set up business ventures for her, all in furtherance of the
marriage agreement.
To
support his case and to prove that Chinye agreed to marry him, the chairman
called three witnesses. The first witness was a builder who testified that
Chinye once met him and introduced herself as the proposed wife of the man the
builder was working for at Minister’s Hill. He also testified that Chinye used
to visit the site in dispute to effect some corrections and that in fact she
visited the site more than seven times.
The
second witness was the liaison officer Onigegewura had earlier told you about.
According to him, it was Attah who introduced Chinye to him as his fiancée. The
third witness was a member of staff of Federal Capital Development Authority
who claimed not to know Chinye but only treated the file bearing her name.
Lest
I forget, the chairman did not only defend the case, he also counter-claimed
against the young lady. When someone sues you and you also sue the person in
the same case, that is counter-claim. In
the counter-claim, the chairman asked the court to declare that he was the
owner of the property notwithstanding the fact that it was Chinye’s name that
appeared on the certificate of occupancy.
The task before the court was therefore to determine who was the owner of the property in dispute. The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory considered the case of both parties carefully. After listening to
all the witnesses and reviewing all the documents filed by both the chairman
and the lady, My Lord Honourable Justice Kusherki of the High Court of the
Federal Capital Territory found in favour of Chinye. The Court upheld her
claims and dismissed the counter-claim of the chairman. His Lordship went
further to direct Chinye “to take possession of both the plot of land... and certificate of occupancy.”
In
her case before the court, Chinye had also asked to be awarded the sum of
N2,000,000 as general damages for trespass on the land. The court however
refused to grant this claim.
The
chairman was displeased with the judgment, naturally. He appealed to the Court
of Appeal. My Lords on the panel were Justices Dahiru Musdapher, Zainab
Bulkachuwa and Albert Oduyemi. His Lordship Musdapher presided and read the
judgment of the court. Contrary to the findings of the court of trial, the appellate court held that the chairman was the
owner of the property in dispute notwithstanding Chinye’s name on the
certificate of occupancy.
The
court further found that the conditions of the gift of the land to
Chinye having failed, she no longer had legal or equitable right to the
property. Judgment was therefore entered in favour of the chairman.
It
was now the turn of Chinye to be displeased with the judgment. She filed an
appealed to the Supreme Court. As you know, that is the apex and final court of
appeal.
At
the Supreme Court, Chinye was represented by a firebrand attorney, Mrs. J. O.
Adeshina. The learned counsel argued that the finding of the Court of Appeal
that the property was acquired by the chairman in furtherance of a marriage
agreement was not supported by evidence and the facts before the court.
The chairman,
on the other hand, was represented by another brilliant counsel, Mr. O. A. R.
Ogunde, who appeared with two other counsel. Mr. Ogunde argued that the Court
of Appeal was right because the court found that the chairman paid all the fees
for the allocation of the plot and signed the application form and that all
these were done in furtherance of a marriage agreement between the parties. He
submitted that as a result, Chinye was a resulting
trustee of the property and not the absolute owner.
In
case you don’t know what a resulting trustee is, let me attempt to explain it.
It is also called implied trust. Let
me illustrate it with this example. Ajangbadi purchases a property in the name
of Okokomaiko. In the absence of any explanation to the contrary, equity
presumes that Okokomaiko is holding the property in trust for Ajangbadi. In
other words, the learned counsel argued that Chinye was holding the property in
trust for the chairman. I hope you now understand. You do? Very good.
My
Lord Justice Niki Tobi who read the lead judgment looked very carefully through
the records of proceeding. His Lordship was trying to find evidence of the agreement
for marriage between the chairman and the young lady. This was important
because it was the agreement that the chairman claimed to have made him to
procure the landed property in dispute.
His
Lordship however was unable to find any agreement. The only thing the
Honourable Mr. Justice Tobi found was the evidence of Chinye who testified that
the chairman “refused to go and see my parents on the gifts and offers.” By the
way, the chairman didn’t personally testify. [In law, it is not mandatory for a
party to personally testify as a witness, provided that she has other
witnesses.]
The
Supreme Court found that there was no evidence to contradict Chinye’s
testimony, particularly in respect of the chairman’s refusal to go and see her
parents. The apex Court was therefore of the view that: “it is difficult to
come to the conclusion that there was really an agreement to marry; not to talk
of such an agreement based on the putting of the property in dispute.”
Four
other Honourable Justices sat with Justice Niki Tobi to hear the case. They
also examined the records of proceedings with magnifying glasses. Their
Lordships were unable to find any evidence of agreement for marriage. What they found was that it was the young lady's name that appeared on the title documents of the land. Even in the forms where the chairman's name appeared, it was stated that he was signing for her.
At
the end of the day, the Supreme Court agreed with the decision of the trial
court that Chinye’s case was meritorious and that she was in fact and in law
entitled to the property. Justice Niki Tobi further ordered the chairman to pay
his former lover the sum of N10,000 as costs.
In
Honourable Justice Pats-Acholonu’s concurring judgment, His Lordship waxed
philosophical and poetic when he observed that: “this is a case that the respondent [the chairman] should have spared
himself the agony of going through the court processes. For him, when the going
was going good he lavished love (I imagined it was reciprocated) money and
eventually landed property on the appellant [Chinye]. When the tide turned, he
fell back on non-existent agreement to marry and urged the court to go the
extra mile of pronouncing the existence of a resulting trustee.
I refuse to lend hand to assuage the
feelings of a lover whose romance went awry. The love that once bound these two
people and now got frosted can be likened to verse xxxv of Shakespeare Sonnets,
a sort of lamentation, and also verse 1 of Passionate Pilgrim. Thus we have in
this case so much love and then so much pain. It is the way of the world.”
I
have quoted verse 1 of Passionate Pilgrim
at the beginning of this piece. I think it is proper to conclude by quoting
the opening lines of Shakespeare Sonnet 35 referred to by His Lordship:
“No more be griev’d at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud….”
So much love and so much pain. It is the way of the world...
I
thank you for your time.
History Does Not Forget
The right of Olanrewaju Onigegewura© to be identified as the author of stories published on this blog has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright laws.
Nice one. God bless Onigegewura
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rasheed. God bless you too.
DeleteHmm. So much love and so much pain. It is truly the way of the world.
ReplyDeleteTruly Mr. Attah did that all for love . And shouldnt cry as the love went sour.
Though it is sad .
Thanks Onigegewura for the wonderful write-up. A lot to be learnt here.
So much love, so much pain. Thank you, Rotimi.
DeleteI enjoyed d piece ..
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed writing it too. Cheers
DeleteOnigegewura made me burn my breakfast this morning. That's the power of good storytelling.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely apologise for the burnt breakfast, Your Lordship. Please let me know how to get breakfast vouchers across.
DeleteVery interesting. Enjoyed it immensely. Please keep them coming
ReplyDeleteLolab, many thanks for your time and kind words.I enjoyed it too!
Delete"I refuse to lend hand to assuage the feelings of a lover whose romance went awry". EPIC!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's a quotable quote!
DeleteNice one indeed. When it was sweet, they never remembered that honey and painful stings are both products of bees and that it is always with caution that snails crawl over thorns.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
DeleteIt's only a master craftsman that can turn the boring proceedings of Court room into a spellbinding and compelling prose such as this. I duff my hat to you sir. I was glued till I got to the last full stop!
ReplyDeleteI am humbled, Anastasia! Thank you.
DeleteNice one. 2 judgments in one.One by the Judges and another by the Historian.Kudos to Onigegewura.Your pen would never dry. Amen.
ReplyDeleteHistorian is not a judge. History and the Courts are the judges. Thank you, Sir Akintunde.
DeletePassion and pain indeed.Fantastic write up Onigewura.May your ink never run dry!
ReplyDeletePassion and pain indeed.Fantastic write up Onigewura.May your ink never run dry!
ReplyDeleteAmen! Thank you, Wunmi.
DeleteAwesome! How creative.
ReplyDeleteVery informative and educative as usual.
ReplyDeleteAnything given to a woman during the days of love should be forgotten when the love goes sour,. Men should note that women love properties more than their husbands and children.
ReplyDeleteWhat Love! Mahmoud Attah was held in the vice-grip of Lust - that veritable precursor of Loss! Little wonder he Lost!! #Abelejayan
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic story telling. Onigegewura is gifted. I pray you go places with this gift and get good rewards for it. For Attah, he was petty and selfish to have kept the young woman and enjoyed her yet wants to renege on his promise to allow her marry someone else. The story actually says she paid for the land and was issued receipts. I almost lost my respect for the appeal justices! Why did they reach such a conclusion that there was a marriage agreement which this the basis of a gift of land even when the receipt shows that Chinye paid for the land? Attah merely ran errands pursuing the application for Chinye. More stories please.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Troy.
DeleteQuite an interesting and insightful read.
ReplyDeleteOnigegewura,dis is a gud one 4all SugarDaddies to learn frm.
ReplyDelete....so much LUST FOR sooo much PAIN...
ReplyDeleteA case of a "Lustful Adventure" that does no one any good. This case is not ended yet...
Olarenwaju, you're the BEST storyteller I know of today. If every lecturer of the law of evidence and the other procedural laws have your mastery of storytelling, no student of theirs will fail their courses. You have a superb way of bringing life into the dead letters of decided cases that one can never forget the facts, the principles and the ratio decidendi of the cases. Don't forget to compile your legal-histories into a book. The book will be a best seller, believe me. Just call the book STORIES OF THE LAW OF EVIDENCE. Just a STORY SERIES. More power, Bro.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Thank you, Thank you!
DeleteThis is an EPIC master piece and well written in English, not in big languages that confuse more than educate. I totally agree with the Supreme Court's fulling but to be honest, this case ought not to have gone to court in the first place.
ReplyDelete....Please was this a real case in Nigeria?
Yes, Sir. It was a true case decided by Courts in Nigeria. It is reported in the law reports.
DeleteGood story line and sound legal judgement per excellence. ..
ReplyDeleteKeep it up olarenwaju
This is my first time of reading your blog and I’m in awe of your writing skill. Your are truly gifted. This was very well written and I will be following your blog .
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your interest. I appreciate your comment.
DeleteWho says our eminent jurist are not men of honour and integrity? Supreme Court has done justice to all the cases I have read here on this platform except the case of " Two Premiers" that was largely due to influence of FG through Justice Ademola who was ouchestrator from that "phone call" I will forever have confidence in our justice system!! ...even when lawyer ogunde tried to assuaged the judges by guiding their thought toward "Resulting Trustee" they did their job! Kudos to our judges.. shame on DSS with their sting operation! More power to your elbow Onigegewura! Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe pleasure is mine, Samshudeen.
DeleteVery compelling & unputdownable!
ReplyDelete"I refuse to lend hand to assuage the feelings of a lover whose romance went awry."
ReplyDelete~Honourable Justice Pats-Acholonu’s
I wonder how dead the legs of Alh. Attah had become the moment he received such deadly punch from a fearless pugilist of law.
As usual, thank you for shaping our mind in the path of law.
Sincere regards,
Markay
You are welcome, Markay!
DeleteWhat a brilliant piece!
ReplyDeleteI actually see myself as if leaving in those times.....good stories...your stories is keeping me up this late.
ReplyDeleteAm happy for the fact that chinye won. God bless onigegewura.
ReplyDeleteAnother nice and fantastic story from Onigegewura. Expecting more of this brilliant write up. May God increase you in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. keep the good work going.
ReplyDeleteYou are an exceptional one. Since I discovered you, I have not stopped.
ReplyDeleteHmm, the Yoruba adage is apt: ìbèrè àgbèrè bíi gbe-èyìn-wá-kí-n-pòn-o níí rí, kó tó d'ojó alé, wón á fi enu won we ti esin (the beginning of extra-marital affair is always sweet, before too long, they liken each other's mouth to that of a horse)
ReplyDeleteOnigegewura, you have done it again! Keep it up
It seems clear to me, the trial court and the Supreme Court and I believe most people even though we are not all lawyers that the property belongs to the lady. How then did the three learned justices of the Appeal Court find otherwise? What happened? Attach's claims of a breach of a promise to marry without evidence is spurious. Even if there was such a promise and with evidence, as long as it's not expressly tied to the purchase of the property, the lady's claim,to me, is still valid.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoy your write ups. I only wish we can get them on a weekly basis. Hope am not asking for too much? That's how good they are.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful piece, so much lessons to be learnt. Aristotle practice started way back. Alhaji Attach wanted to eat his cake and still have it. I saw influence at play at the appeal court. Thanks to the supreme court team. Onigegewura if math was written this way I would have had an A at waec. Interesting piece I must confess
ReplyDeleteA Classic Narrative. Great.
ReplyDeletewow! what a great story, so much love, so much pains and so much hatred.
ReplyDelete