9Mobile Allegedly Transferred A Deceased’s Property Via A Fraudulent Document!

The family of late Mr. Sunday Oladapo has accused a Mobile Telecommunication Company, Emerging Market Telecommunication Services Limited, also known as 9mobile of fraud and forgery.

It was reported that in 2008, the Deceased entered into a contract to lease his parcel of land located in Gbagada, Lagos, to 9Mobile for the operation of their telecommunication equipment, facilities and to house a base station.

As shown in the contract agreement, both parties agreed that 9mobile is not to assign, underlet, or otherwise part with possession of the premise or any part without the prior written consent of the Deceased and any notice required to be given will be done in writing to each party at the contact address at the commencement of the agreement.

9Mobile had already transferred the said portion of land to IHS Nigeria Limited, one of the largest mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East by tower count and the third largest independent multinational tower company globally.

The forged & fraudulent consent document dated the 18th August, 2014 was signed by one Aidevo Odu-Thomas - the Company Secretary of 9Mobile. The said document was supposedly executed by the Deceased by appending his thumb print contrary to the way he had always executed his contract agreements or any other documents.

It was also discovered that the witness to the execution of the forged & fraudulent consent document was a minor (14) as at the time she purportedly witnessed the execution.

According to the source, “the children upon getting the Letter of Administration inquired to know the position of the land with 9Mobile, but discovered that the land had been transferred to IHS Ngeria Limited without prior written consent of their father and that the consent document 9Mobile tendered was not from their late father but rather forged.”

“The consent document was forged as it was thumb printed. This is contrary to the way the old man executed his contract agreements or any other documents, he used to sign his documents, not thumb print and the name as witness is the late Sunday’s grand-child instead of his direct son who has always witnessed the execution of his contract agreements. He added.

“By their body language they accepted but said when they came with the document, late Mr. Sunday (aged 82 then) was on sick bed, so the girl had to acknowledge it on his behalf,” The source said.

He further stated that when Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), visited last week Monday, 10th September, 2018 they said the acts by 9Mobile were illegal, wrongful and need to be regularized. The Commission advised 9mobile to settle with the family.

He added: “9Mobile however refused to communicate with them to regularize their wrongful acts. The family does not have any problem with consenting to a new lease with IHS but forging the document without the consent of their father was criminal. They have written them and called but they (EMTS) said they don’t care, and that they (the family) can go to any length, they don’t mind.”

Apparently 9Mobile has been collecting rents from IHS Nigeria Limited and had failed to pay rents to the family of the deceased since Mr. Sunday died in 2015 and has continued to receive multiple millions of naira on the same site.

Despite the intervention of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), 9Mobile has continued its oppression against the family. The source stated.