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A new twist has emerged about the tussle over the ownership of the River Park Estate in Abuja, as the Head Compliance, Mr Frank Johnson, on Monday disclosed that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Nyesome Wike, was given a wrong narrative by the committee he set up.

Johnson, therefore, called on the FCT Minister to hear their side of the story in the matter with a view to resolving the ownership conflict.

In an interactive session with a cross section of the media, Johnson gave a detailed explanation with documents which predated the incorporation of the company in 2006, countering the Ghanaian narrative, Samuel Jonah of being the majority shareholder of River Park Estate.

“No, what we are saying is that he (the FCT minister) has been misinformed. We want the public themselves to understand the truth behind all of these issues. And if only he had listened to all the parties, these injustices would never have happened.

“Number one, due process was not followed in the build-up to the report he is acting on. The due process was not followed, and the only way to remedy that is to let the right things be done by allowing due process to take place.

“And when I say due process, we need to see the petition, we need to be able to respond to every allegation made against us.

“Another thing they have said is that the development lease agreement has expired. Well, it hasn’t, because the last approval that was given to us was in 2023, that agreement expired seven years after the last approval.

“We have approval as of 2023. How can it then expire in 2025? So these are all issues that need to be looked into.

Johnson also said that they had petitioned the Corporate Affairs Commission to do the needful by sanitising their system and, especially in this case, make sure that documents that have been certified forged were expunged.

This is even as he disclosed that the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) had, after due diligence and forensic examination of the document involved, came out with the report that about 12 different documents in these two companies had been doctored for the purpose of taking over the shares of those companies.

“The police took the specimen sample of these people’s signatures, they took documents that were signed between 2010 and 2012, when this whole thing was said to have happened, about four or five documents that he signed.

“The police then sent all those documents for forensic, and this is the forensic report. The forensic report came back that about 12 different documents in these two companies had been doctored for the purpose of taking over the shares of those companies and removing legitimate directors without them knowing.

“After the forensic report came back, the police then proceeded to issue their final report in June to say, these people are corrupt people, this is what they have done, and they charged them to court, and that is where all hell was let loose.”

While expressing confidence in the judiciary, he said the man who registered the company is alive, “the company, the lawyers he gave the registration details to, register for him, they are alive.

He explained that the company known as Jonah Capital Nigeria Ltd. and Houses for Africa Nigeria Ltd. were the two major companies involved in the development of River Park estate.

According to him, every other company, for example, Paulo Homes, Mobus or Common Consultants were independent companies belonging to those that came together to make up Jonah Capital and Houses for Africa Nigeria.

He said, “For Jonah Capital and Houses for Africa, everything had been relatively very quiet until 2024 when the Ghanaian component of Houses for Africa, on their own decided to remove all Nigerians that are on the board of that company.

“And not just remove all the board members that are Nigerians and of other nationalities in Houses for Africa, they went to Jonah Capital as well and did the same thing.

“So, when the other partners got wind of this development, there were documents to back them up. So, all the disparity and the issues came up when the other partners in the business found out what these people have done, and the question is, how is this even possible?

“How can three of us own a business or participate in a venture and only you will remove the other two and claim that the business belongs to you only?

“Now, I’ll be showing you documents that clearly show what I’m talking about.

“In 2023, for example, we have this is Houses for Africa status report as shown by CAC. You have a company that has 20 million ordinary shares, but only 10 million has been allotted.

“Of the 10 million that has been allotted, you have directors that are Nigerians, Ghanaians, and other South Africans.

“By 2024,they have removed all Nigerians in this company. And you can see the date here. For example, Paul Odili was removed as a director on the 6th day of September, 2024. Vincent Azike was removed sometime in August, 20th August, 2024, Adeniran Ogunmuyiwa was equally removed on the 6th day of September, 2024.

Johnson who claimed to be versed in the company structure, queried how a fraud of this magnitude could be carried out with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

“Now, if anybody knows anything about how corporate affairs works, it’s not possible for you to remove a director without him knowing, at least when he’s alive.

“What has happened here is somebody went to Ghana and sat down and simply drafted board resolution removing all the Nigerians that are in the company and others, came to CAC to file that report.

“And upon filing it, they equally increased the shareholding of the company to 100 million and allocated everything to themselves.

“That is one. Now, for Jonah Capital, this is the status report of Jonah Capital as of the 20th day of July, 2020. It’s a company with 10 million shares, but only 1 million has been allotted.

“Of the 1 million that has been allotted, you look at the name and address of current shareholders. Number one here is Houses for Africa Nigeria Limited with 999,999 shares and Mr. Adeniran Ogumuyiwa with one, just one share.

“And when you look at the name of the directors, you have John Stanley Johnson Richard, you have Williams Michael Paul, you have Ogumuyiwa Adeniran Olakiitan.

“And the only Ghanaian among them is Kojo Mensah. This is the status report of the company in 2020. In 2024, as of 31st October 2024, what we then have is the company has graduated to 100 million shareholdings.

“How did that happen? From 10 million, it has now gotten to 100 million. None of the Nigerian directors, none of the South African directors were aware of such increase in the shareholding of the company.

“In fact, of the four directors that I listed here, only one of them, which is Kojo Mensah, orchestrated the increment in the shares and this is the document.

“On the first day of February 2024, they went to Ghana and claimed that they were at the registered address of the company, which by the way, the registered address of the company is Adeniran Ogumuyiwa’s residence.

“So you could not have held the meeting in his house, which he used also partly as the office without him knowing. And then the amount forming the capital eing increased to 100 million by the creation of 99 million.”

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