Businessman Denies Responsibility For Hotelier Fraud Charges
A businessman, Chief Collins Ogbuji, has categorically denied any involvement in the harassment of hotelier Joseph Umezugha.
Ogbuji asserts that any legal actions related to the fraud allegations are being handled by a court of law, which ensures proper checks and balances.
Ogbuji maintains that he never met or knew who Joseph Umezugha was until he was introduced to him by a mutual acquaintance.
However, Umezugha allegedly continued to demand more money, even though Ogbuji insisted on proper accounting of the funds already collected.
Umezugha’s wife, son, and their lawyer later wrote to Ogbuji claiming that Umezugha fraudulently forged their signatures to make Ogbuji a director in De-Jessica Hotel to obtain money from him.
Currently, Ogbuji’s company, Colbex Systems Ltd, is the owner of half of the land and half of the entire hotel building, its fixtures and fittings at No. 1, Liberty Estate Road, Okokomaiko, Ojo, Lagos, by the Deed of Assignment dated 7th September 2021.
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Joseph Umezugha was subsequently charged to court with defrauding three other victims by his alleged acts that led to the sealing of the hotel by the Federal High Court.
Some of the charges levelled against Umezugha include;
That he collected the sum of Sixty-Six Million (N66,000,000) sometime in January 2022 under false pretence from the complainant through his Zenith Bank Account no 1013654421, thereby committing an offence punishable under the Advance Fee Fraud & other Offences Act. He was alleged to have fraudulently misrepresented himself to Chief Collins as a businessman & the owner of Saint Joe International Agency by which he collected the sum of N66m, an offence punishable under the Advance Fee Fraud & other Offences Act No 14 of 2006.
“That he converted the said sum of N66m collected in January 2022 and converted it into personal use, thereby committing an offence punishable under the Money Laundry Act (Prohibition Act, 2011).
“That you Joseph Okwudilli Umezugha, sometime in January 2022, in Lagos State, within the aforementioned judicial division of the Federal High Court, did knowingly forge a document titled: ‘Lagos State
“Certificate of Occupancy with Registration No. 62 at Page 62 in Volume 2014J dated 10th day of May 2014 with the intent that it may in any way be used or acted upon as genuine whether in Nigeria or elsewhere to the prejudice of Uchechukwu Umel Elxor ‘m and thereby commit an offence punishable under Section 1(2)(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap. M17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2014.
