Alhaji Mutairu Babatunde Oriowo, husband of Nollywood actress, Laide Bakare, has debunked the fraud and theft story against him occasioned through a declaration by the EFCC and published recently in a national daily. The businessman, who is the CEO of Primavera Construction & Engineering Ltd, added that, contrary to EFCC’s statement declaring him wanted, he is not on the run because he has not committed any offence to warrant running away from his fatherland.
Nollywood actress, Laide Bakare, has
also said that she is standing by her husband on the matter, believing that the
EFCC publication was meant to destroy his hard-earned reputation as a philanthropist
who derives joy in helping people, adding that the story was also a calculated
attempt to smear her own name as a celebrity.
According to Mr. Orilowo, the EFCC and
MTN were only out to blackmail him because the court case he instituted against
EFCC, seeking an injunction to restrain the agency from arresting him or
declaring him wanted, will be determine on the 28th of April 2014. Yet
he was declared wanted on no basis many weeks before the hearing date.
Explaining the issue further, Mr.
Orilowo said that “there was this MTN Cooperative whose membership is of MTN
workers. Their union came together with this idea of a project called ‘Y’ello
Estate’ to be built at Okun Ajah. That is my home town and where I do most of
my businesses. So, based on my popularity and as a philanthropist who commands
respect in the area, my company, Primavera Engineering & Construction
Limited, was approached by MTN to help buy five hectares of land, which we did.
Later, they came to us again and said oh, there are more demands, get us five
hectares more. We did. The subscribers now became much interested in the
project because they were going to make it the best of such Estates in Lagos”.
“We had an agreement from the
beginning because they trusted us to deliver. The agreement was for me to; one,
buy the lands; two, to ensure that the lands acquired were validly documented,
and three, to be the sole developer of the Estate”.
“But some powerful people at MTN
then came in after the agreement with the aim to hijack it. They saw the
project as a laudable one and they were shocked that I was the only man
handling the project. They came with an excuse that many people were bidding
for it and it should not be a one-man thing. But I have spent close to one
billion naira on this project. The agreement was for me to collect from MTN 20
percent of the money for mobilization and then go ahead to complete it with my
personal money. And I have spent a lot on it. You know how big a project like
an Estate can be; talk of roads, bridges and other amenities”.
“So, since the MTN had decided to
bring in another developer and my company has committed so much into executing
the project, I asked that the money I have spent so far be refunded. But when
they were not forthcoming, I took the MTN Cooperative to court seeking to
retrieve my money. We got judgment from Hon. Justice Olateru-Olagbegi. We then
had negotiations with MTN based on the court judgment. Under the terms of
settlement, MTN was to pay us substantial sums of money”.
“But MTN still refused to pay us, so
we commenced third-party involvement proceedings against MTN which resulted in
the issuance of an order freezing the bank accounts of MTN. While we await
action on our money, MTN went to EFCC to lodge criminal complaints against us,
alleging theft of money without disclosing the court proceedings on the issue.
This was after the EFCC, on its own, had gone to court to institute criminal
proceedings against us based on MTN’s complaints, which is still pending before
the court”.
