Admin l Thursday, June 13, 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria – CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Company Limited has denied allegations that it fraudulently mortgaged homes belonging to Pearl Nuga Park Estate and Pearl Garden Estate at Sangotedo Village in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, stressing that it is false, malicious, and misleading.
CMB in a statement issued through its lawyer, Ifoma Ogoh equally argued that the said allegations are pure campaign of calumny.
It would be recalled that the homeowners of Pearl Nuga Park Estate and Pearl Garden Estate had dragged CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Company Limited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alleging fraudulent mortgage of some of their homes to secure bank loans.
Ogoh, responding on behalf of CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Company Limited said, “We are solicitors to CMB Building Maintenance & Investment Co. Ltd. (our Client) on whose behalf we write in respect of the twin malicious advertorials placed in the Guardian Newspaper on the 3rd of June, 2019 by a group of persons falsely presenting as the management of Pearl Gardens and Pearl Nuga Park Estates respectively.
“Both Estates were developed and are managed by our Client.The advertorials were written by faceless groups stated to be ’The Management and Trustees of the Pearl Gardens Estate Homeowners Community Association’’ and “Pearl Nuga Park Estate Homeowners and Residents Association.
“Unsubstantiated and reckless statements were made in these advertorials and demonstrate what is patently a campaign of calumny by a minority who are resistant to the structured and well ordered running of the estate. Their mission is to oust our client from continuing to serve as facility managers of the estates in question; a role that our client has played competently and effectively from inception.
“They also push their agenda by latching on to anything that will drive their faulty narrative. Reports indicate that this group of individuals are already embroiled in scandal involving embezzlement and misappropriation of funds, indicative of the character and conduct of those driving this smear campaign”, she said.
According to her, allegations by the faceless group, which she described as faceless are false and unsubstantiated. “It is instructive that they had approached the courts of Law thrice and each time, the cases were struck out. The false allegations in the advertorials appear to be an attempt to malign our client in the court of public opinion having constituted themselves prosecutor and judge, in the absence of a case in the court of law.
“The false and misleading nature of the advertorials is again evident of another issue – the abuse of court processes as well as the sham and completely malicious execution of a non-existent order.”
Ogoh further stated that, “there is no possession order whatsoever on any of our client’s properties; not on Pearl Nuga Park or any other estates built by our client anywhere in Nigeria. Differences arise from time to time in the course of business and our client’s customer-client relationship with a bank has no legal or lawful bearing on any properties.”
While maintaining that the company’s clients have nothing to fear, the lawyer stated that, the court order referred to in the malicious missive was obtained ex-parte by the bank, without her client’s knowledge or prior notice.
“As we have discovered, despite the court’s refusal to grant the request prayed by the bank, they went ahead to carry out an illegal execution of a non-existent order to cause confusion, intimidate residents of Pearl Nuga Park and embarrass our client. Our client has been in business for seventeen years and in that time, has developed several residential estates across Nigeria, some of which are fully occupied with others in the process of development.
“With close to 3,000 clients and over 15 estates around Nigeria, six of which are occupied by hundreds of residents and managed successfully without conflict, it is clear that our client consistently provides quality service. This is because the people who live in CMB built estates are important to our client who places a high premium on their security, safety and comfort.
“CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Co. Ltd. is committed to efficient management of the estates they take responsibility for and works to establish competent and effective facility management. As with all services, there are charges for ensuring that these continue to provide sustained value to residents.
“This is part of an integrated, well-run framework to ensure competent and professional facility management that benefits all residents of all CMB-built estates. We are gratified that majority of our client’s residents support order and structure and like our client, believe in constructive dialogue.
“Our client is a law abiding, responsible corporate citizen and member of the society. We restate that the allegations in the advertorials are false, malicious and misleading and we will be taking appropriate steps to defend our client’s position and reputation built painstakingly over 17 years.”
Meanwhile, in the separate petitions dated May 28, 2019 and addressed to the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu, the executive members of both estates who signed the petitions, alleged that the real estate firm and its Managing Director, Kelechukwu Mbagwu, had engaged in criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of their properties.
The petitioners insisted that CMB obtained what they termed a ‘mortgage’ from Wema Bank Plc using the affected homes at Pearl Nuga Estate as collateral without the knowledge or consent of the affected homeowners of the properties.
According to them (the petitioners), “the affected homeowners had paid CMB for those houses to be built and had taken possession of their houses from CMB at different times.
“CMB and Mbagwu fraudulently withheld the title deeds of the houses from the affected homeowners as it withheld those of several other homeowners within the estate.”
The petitioners had equally revealed that the bank had began what they termed a recovery of the six houses within the estate through a law firm, Jirey & Greys, consequent upon the failure of the property developer to repay the loan.
In the same vein, Pearl Garden Estate had equally pointed accusing fingers at CMB of allegedly making use of four of their members who had already paid in full to fraudulently obtain a N10 million loan from Diamond Bank (now Access Bank). They (petitioners) had posited that, “We have no other choice but to believe that other houses of our members and homeowners within the estates may be the subject of similar fraudulent mortgages .
“We ask you to investigate this criminal and wanton fraud on our hardworking members and their families. We humbly request that you use your good office to thoroughly investigate this fraudulent act, hold the CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Company Limited and Mbagwu accountable for the fraud, and prevent the loss of the homes of these rightful homeowners and other affected homeowners, which may not be known at this time.”
