Appeal Court Voids GTBank’s Takeover of Abiola’s ₦30bn Mansion

Appeal Court Voids GTBank’s Takeover of Abiola’s ₦30bn Mansion.
Judges cite fraud, forgery allegations in flawed mortgage documents.
Court rules foreclosure lacked legal basis, sets aside earlier judgment.

The Court of Appeal in Lagos has overturned a 2013 judgment of the Federal High Court that allowed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc to foreclose on a 44-room Ikoyi mansion allegedly worth ₦30 billion and owned by Alhaji Agboola Abiola, son of late business magnate and politician, Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

In Appeal No. CA/L/888/2014, the appellate court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Paul Aimee Bassi, alongside Justices Polycarp Kwahar and Abdulaziz Anka, ruled that the lower court failed to address key issues of forgery and fraud raised by the appellants.

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the appeal challenged the Federal High Court’s June 20, 2014 ruling that favoured GTBank’s motion filed on April 8, 2014. Represented by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Charles Adeogun-Phillips, the appellants argued that the mortgage documents used to back the bank’s foreclosure claim were flawed and improperly executed.

Central to the appeal were three key issues:

Whether GTBank was allowed to amend its affidavit post-hearing.
Whether the lower court rightly granted the reliefs sought.
Whether a valid mortgage existed to justify foreclosing the property.

The court found that while RCN Networks Ltd acknowledged signing the mortgage, Abiola denied ever executing the document. He alleged that his signature page was fraudulently extracted from a separate document and inserted into the deed.

Further doubts were raised over the pagination, with the main document numbered “2 of 9” through “9 of 9,” while the signature page read “11 of 17,” indicating it likely came from another source.

Justice Bassi criticised the lower court’s focus on interpreting Clause 6 of the document without addressing these irregularities. “The lower court erred by ruling on a document whose authenticity was seriously in question,” he said.