Judul : The rich also cry
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The rich also cry
What if you were told that Nigeria’s rich also cry? And that includes a veteran journalist and member of the ruling All Progressives Congress. That is the reality of Ikechi Emenike, journalist and a former editor of gadfly Chris Okolie’s iconic and trailblazing Newbreed Magazine of the roaring 1970s.
Emenike’s wife, Uzoma, is a career diplomat and a former Nigerian ambassador to the Ivory Coast and Ireland before former President Muhammadu Buhari nominated her as ambassador to the United States of America in 2021.
Despite the service of this family to Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, which has the right to respond to yet another interrogation of its conduct, seems determined to deprive them of the opportunity to own a property in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.
One of the properties alleged to have been confiscated from former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was auctioned, and the EFCC, which is carrying out the sale on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, appears to be doing everything to frustrate the Emenikes from exercising their right of first refusal and buying the property as its current tenants.
Ikechi Emenike rented the property sometime in early 2016, probably without knowing it belonged to Allison-Madueke. He was soon to find out when the EFCC secured its possession and wrote him a letter on October 14, 2016, that “the… property which you currently occupy was forfeited in an interim forfeiture order to the Federal Government”.
On January 1, 2017, a verifiable rent agreement was signed between Emenike and Frank Azikagbon & Associates, the agent “for and on behalf of the landlord of the estate, the EFCC”. And official receipts were duly issued by the estate agents for subsequent rental payments from 2017, up to and including 2022.
On December 29, 2022, EFCC advertised the property for sale in TheCable online newspaper to “members of the public, with the exception of people facing prosecution by EFCC”. EFCC went to great lengths to explain the bidding process in detail.
While Emenike, who wanted to take advantage of his right of first refusal to buy the property as a sitting tenant of the property, was earnestly negotiating the deal, he alleged that “EFCC suddenly decided, against their own law, to appropriate the property to its chairman”.
The EFCC advertorial in TheCable newspaper had read that “The auction is open to members of the public, with the exception of individuals, corporate entities who have been/or are being prosecuted by the EFCC; directors of such companies; and employees of the EFCC.”
EFCC advertised the sale of the property in TheCable newspaper of December 29, 2022, but purportedly wrote a letter to Emenike on December 28, 2022, the day before the advertorial, portraying a cart placed before a horse and a missing link.
The letter read, “I refer to your letter dated November 3, 2022, when you requested to be given right of first refusal… The said property is not listed for disposal to either members of the public or the sitting tenant, as the same has been earmarked for public purpose.” It added, “Your tenancy would not be renewed at its expiration on December 31, 2022.”
Yet on June 25, 2024, Festus Azikagbon & Associates, presumably acting for the EFCC, wrote to “demand for (Emenike’s) outstanding rent… (and asked him to) kindly arrange to pay us the sum of N32,000,000… representing N16,000,000 for the (outstanding) period of January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, and (another) N16,000,000 for the period of January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024”.
To which Emenike wrote Fidelity Bank cheque Nos. 0061327553, for N10,000,000; 0061327554, for N10,000,000; 0061327555, for N2,000,000; and 0061327556, for N10,000,000, all totalling N32,000,000 as demanded by Festus Azikagbon & Associates on September 13, 2024.
Maybe the stalled negotiations between the EFCC and the Emenikes for the purchase of the property led to the delay in paying those outstanding rents that the EFCC suddenly asked to be paid through Festus Azikagbon & Associates, which doesn’t seem to have acknowledged the payments or issued the necessary official receipts accordingly.
But this narrative suggests that the Emenikes had legally occupied the property from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2024, without a break. The narrative is silent about the rent for 2025. But as sitting tenants and holders of the right of first refusal, the Emenikes should have the contractual right as first in line for consideration to buy the property that was duly advertised for sale in 2022.
To press what he perceived as his rights, Emenike decided to go to the court, to insist on the right of first refusal to purchase the auctioned property that he probably still occupies legally. On May 16, 2025, Honourable Justice M.S. Liman, of an FCT High Court, granted Emenike the rights.
The justice first had to set aside and vacate an earlier order that he had been misled to make on March 27, 2025, by “fraud of misrepresentations and concealment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission”, to ask the Emenikes to move out of the property. He then restored the Emenikes as tenants of the property.
The court also asked the court bailiff to enforce the order to grant the Emenikes, who had been ejected from the property, access to the property as tenants, and restrain the EFCC from trespassing or entering the property. But to the surprise of the Emenikes and the court, the EFCC, a law enforcement agency, refused to comply with the court order.
According to a bewildered Emenike, some officials of the EFCC even threatened to shoot the bailiff and the other court officials who had come to execute the reentry of the Emenikes. The bailiff, Robert Obi, duly reported the dangerous development to the court.
The EFCC blatantly refused to cooperate with the police that came to assist with ensuring compliance with the order of the court. Later, the EFCC filed a stay of execution of the order of Honourable Justice Liman, who rejected the prayer and again insisted that the EFCC must evacuate itself and its agents from the property.
Still, there is no resolution of this obvious act of impunity by the EFCC and failure of the judiciary and the police, as law enforcement agents, to enforce a pronouncement made by a recognised and statutorily constituted court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
But the more grievous failure, beyond the restoration of the tenancy of the Emenikes, is the disregard of Emenike’s right of first refusal to purchase the property that was legally put out and duly advertised for sale after statutory authorisation.
While it will be unethical for the EFCC, which earlier recused its employees from buying the property, to turn around to allegedly sell the property to its chairman, even though a sitting tenant with a right of first refusal is bidding to buy the property, it is fair to state that the EFCC law does not preclude its employees from buying forfeited properties whose sale is legally authorised.
If you think this is a dog-eat-dog situation of the privileged raping their own, be they journalists, do not complain when the horse manure of impunity hits the fan and spatters on your own inalienable rights.
X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com
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