Real Estate Fraud Allegation: Ooni No Longer In Charge – Metropole

A real estate firm Metropole Interproject Limited has reacted to news going round, alleging the company of mega fraud and linking it to Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, describing the story as misleading and false.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Legal Adviser of the company, Lanre Jolaoso, and made available to newsmen on Wednesday.

The statement noted that the monarch had relinquished his effective control and equity in the company to third parties and professional managers in 2015 before his ascension to the throne and has not been involved since then.

“Metropole Interproject Limited (MIL) and affiliates, developed hundreds of housing estates in Lagos State, which are all fully completed, delivered, occupied and operational since the past 10 years”.

“Immediately upon execution of the joint venture agreement between Metropole Interproject Limited and its contract counter party, we (MIL) spent over N1.2Billion developing the road infrastructure from Ocean Bay estate to the site of the Golden Leaf project, an almost 7km stretch of interlocking road, whilst contributing substantially to the road project of Olugborogan (what is today referred to as Orchid Road)”.

“The funds spent in these required infrastructure projects, were from Metropole Interproject Ltd and from funds paid by numerous subscribers to the Golden leaf project. Till date, nobody is talking about refund of that amount of money and the general public is using the private road freely which is in the common knowledge”.

“However, as with every commercial venture, a dispute broke out between the Parties to the Joint venture and this took years to resolve, thankfully, after the recent intervention of the Ooni of Ife”.

“The challenges faced by the Golden leaf project are matters of public record contained in suit FHC/CS/L/991/2016 and appeal number CA/L/226/2017”.

“MIL has never for once denied its responsibilities to its subscribers, and has indeed commenced development in Golden Leaf estate, and has been issuing refunds to subscribers, who have chosen to opt out of the project. We will continue to service those obligations like every reasonable organization”.

The company stated that after the resolution managed by the monarch, construction has resumed after 6 years.

The statement reads further that, “in October 2020, MIL circulated a memo to some of the said subscribers to begin reconciliation and send in their bank details for refund and refunds kicked off immediately, and with over a hundred people refunded already, the process is still ongoing”.

“Another communication is scheduled to go out once we have cleared the first batch of refunds by August 2021”, according to the statement.

MIL advised that if any subscriber is yet to receive his/her refund, should send a communication with their subscription details to [email protected] and get their refund process started or get in touch with the undersigned or the company’s retained solicitor, Messrs. Prag Attorneys (Attention; Olanrewaju Jolaoso Esq.; email; [email protected]).

They added that 5 (Five) subscribers, who are referred to in the referenced article, are enjoined to immediately contact the company’s staff or solicitor (through the emails specified in this letter) to ensure that their refund is processed accordingly.

The company also denied allegation that the company is building on a land that it has no authority over, adding that the document of the land is available for the public to see.

MIL then tendered apology to the Ooni for any inconvenience the story my have caused to his image adding that the monarch is an approachable person who has been attending who has been attending to aggrieved subscribers that approach him.