Tenant faces trial for renovating house without landlord’s consent

A businesswoman, Adebukola Oladipo, has been arrested by the police for allegedly damaging a building belonging to her landlord, Ediac Ezemuede.

Our Correspondent gathered that Oladipo rented a guesthouse consisting of five rooms, an open space and two stores from the landlord in 2016.

Ezemuede, in his statement to the police, said Oladipo damaged the building for reasons best known to her, adding that she used the police against him when he demanded an explanation from her.

“The office and the store were damaged by her (Oladipo) and in my bid to get an explanation, she got me arrested. She also threatened to kill me as long as she knew my house,” he said.

Oladipo, while denying the allegation of threat to life, however, admitted that the house got damaged while she was trying to renovate it.

The Ogun State indigene said, “When I rented the place, there was no electricity or water supply to the building. The rooms, toilets and doors were damaged as well. He (the landlord) asked me to repair them and promised either to refund the money expended on the repairs or convert it to rent. He reneged on the agreement and said he could only give me two months’ rent and I spent N600,000 to fix the whole place.

“I never threatened him; rather, different people, who claimed to be his brothers, came around and threatened to beat me up. I informed him when I wanted to destroy the building for renovation and he did not complain. I don’t know why he is making an issue of it now.”

Oladipo was arraigned before an Ogba Magistrates’ Court on two counts of wilful damage and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.

The charges read, “That you, Adebukola Oladipo, in February 2018, on Clem Road, Jankara, Ijaiye, Lagos State, in the Ikeja Magisterial District, did wilfully damage the wall of one of the rooms you occupied valued at N600,000, property of one Ediac Ezemuede without his consent, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 350 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015.

“That you, Adebukola Oladipo, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did conduct yourself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by abusing and threatening one Ediac Ezemuede that you were going to kill him over his property, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 168(d) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015.”

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The presiding magistrate, Mrs I. A. Abina, granted her bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties each in like sum.

She adjourned the case till November 19, 2018.

Source: Punch