The worst has happened: Emeka Ike Thrown Out Of Apartment Over His Inability To Pay Rent

Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike who has been thrown
out of his rented apartment in Magodo GRA, Ikeja,
Lagos, over his inability to pay an accumulated
three year rent of N8.5 million.
The apartment, a twin duplex located at 1, Raji
Oladimeji Street, Magodo GRA, was until his
ejection, used by Emeka to run his business.
Emeka had in 2007 diversified by establishing a
secondary school named St Nicholas College and
decided to hire the premises on a five-year lease
agreement from an 87-year-old retiree, Chief
Samuel Agboola Akintan at the rate of N2 million
per annum for the first two years and N3 million
annually for the remaining three years, bringing the
total rent of five years to N13 million.
The Sun gathered that Emeka was able to get his
landlord accept a deposit of N2 million with a
promise to pay the rest later. Trouble, however,
started when a year after moving in, the popular
actor began to default and at a point issued a dud
cheque of N1.5 million.
To force Emeka to pay his money and eject him
from the property, Chief Akintan through his
company, Samak Investments Ltd, had to drag the
actor to the Ikeja Magistrate court.Without much
delay, the court had on November 22, last year
ordered the actor to vacate the premises but his
refusal to heed the order led the court Sheriff to
carry out execution of the judgment on January 24
this year when his property was thrown out.
Speaking to The Sun, the octogenarian chairman of
Samak Investment Ltd, Chief Akintan wondered
why the actor chose to be a pain in his neck.
He said:
"I never knew this gentleman from Adam. He just
came to my house with his wife and I was worried
about who he was and my children came to me,
saying, Emeka Ike, we know him daddy; he is a
nice gentleman. That is how I fell into his hands."
"When I wanted to take the matter to court, Emeka
wrote a letter on February 15, 2012, pleading that
I'm his father and that I should halt any court
process against him. Even this N2.5 million was
paid in 2011, a year to the expiration of the five-
year lease. After that, he issued a N1.5 million
Zenith bank, Eric Moore branch cheque in my
name, dated May 20, 2012, which bounced."Some
people advised me to take him to Special Fraud
Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria police; I refused because
this boy is a young boy like my son, why would I
do that to him; that he should leave my property."
"After the cheque bounced, my lawyer called him
over the phone, he started abusing me, threatening
to deal with the lawyer and me. I never looked at
what he was owing me in the past but should pay
this N1.5 million. If I were to calculate his arrears,
he has to pay far more but I am just satisfied with
this N1.5 million."
He said the recommendation from his children
made him enter into the lease agreement of five
years which was to expire in 2012. According to
him,
"he was supposed to pay for the first two years N2
million each per annum and the subsequent three
years N3 million per annum. The total rent for that
period of five years should be N13 million. He paid
N2 million for the first year and never paid again
until three years later when he paid only N4.5
million and the balance should be N 8.5 million."
"I can't walk, so the two times I went there, I was
carried like a baby to the court and Emeka didn't
come, but my lawyer went there three times. The
magistrate at Igbosere wrote back to the one at
Ikeja to go ahead with the matter since Emeka
didn't come.
"We went back to the first court and after several
adjournments, neither Emeka nor his lawyer put up
appearance and we were asked to give our
evidence and we did, thereafter, the judgment was
delivered.
"To give Emeka another opportunity, we got
judgment in November 22, but the magistrate in
her wisdom said we should give him one month to
enable him to get himself together and move out.
We were supposed to take possession by
December 20, 2013 but we didn't until January 24,
when the Commissioner of Police gave us three
policemen led by an Assistant Superintendent of
Police to follow the Court Sheriff to eject him. They
ejected him and put his property outside."
When Emeka heard of this unsavoury
development, he was said to have gone to Magodo
police station and reported that thugs invaded his
property after which the police arrested the two
guards the landlord had stationed there.
"When in January I went to the premises, even the
teachers complained that they had never seen him
for many months and had not paid them salaries
for nine months.
"While I was in Ondo, I got a phone call that Ekeka
came to Lagos and went to Magodo police station
and reported that thugs invaded his property.
Police went there and arrested the guards and he
put his own guards and locked the place."
Sounding emotional, Chief Akintan said:
"I'm a sick man; diabetic for 37 years. I will be 87
by my next birthday and can't walk. I live at the
grace of doctors and what nature can allow me to
have. I'm immobile. I had to come back to Lagos to
start another process to dislodge him. When I
spoke to the DPO, Magodo police station and
tendered documents, he said, so, 'Emeka came
here to tell him lies.'
"We have filed a contempt of court against him. We
have taken possession of the property and about
renovating it.
He is going about telling people that the place was
not completed when he moved in that he put over
N200 million to build it. He has done a lot of
damage to the property.  I sent my contractor to
assess the damage; he told me that I needed
between N10 million and N13 million for
renovation.
"I have sympathy for Emeka, but unfortunately, he
has no sympathy for himself. Emeka went to court
to plead that the judgment should be set aside, that
I received a kangaroo judgment; that the case
should be retried. The court dismissed it, saying it
was abuse of court process.
I don't know what Emeka would do again. I have
never seen a character like that before.
"His former landlord, Dr Shofoluwe was in the
same position with me. He is looking for Emeka to
pay N3.5 million rent arrears. He was ejected
legally. This is the type of man coming to trouble
me now and I don't need cheap publicity."
When Emeka Ike was contacted, he said
"there is a position now, because I don't want
people who have not achieved anything in their
lives to use unnecessary distractions to gain
prominence. It is my money and investments and
it is not a national crisis.
Maybe people who think I have a larger than life
image are trying to use it to make a point and I
want to handle it as legal as possible."
He noted that there can be challenges in business,
stressing that he is still in possession of the
school.He added that only two entities can close
down a school, either the government or the owner
of the school stressing that none of that has
happened.
"I'm still in possession of the school. It is only the
government that has the right to shut down the
school if it feels that I'm not capable and I, as the
CEO, if I feel that I can't do it again. Nobody can
shut down the school and the case is in court. It
should not be seen as a national crisis, I have my
business in Abuja and I'm doing very well and right
now I don't like distraction,"
Source: Sun