By Okey Okeke
A-23-years old orphan and single-mother of four children, Ms Victoria Nzube Mbachu, Friday, told Chief Magistrate Court at Nnobi, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra state that her brick-layer Beninois boyfriend, Mr. Oluwafemi Salako squandered her money and lured her to escape with her four children to Ogun State after selling a landed property she inherited from her father.
Nzube, a native of Nnobi, stated this while testifying as a witness in criminal charges of giving false information to the police and malicious damage preferred against the duo of Chief Peter Chijioke Okaa and Olufemi Salako by the Commissioner of police based on complaint made to the police by an American-based Nnobi native, Mr. Bonaventure Ezekwenna.
She said she is the only surviving child of late Mr. and late Mrs Ifeanyi Mbachu, having lost her siblings and other relatives as well, adding that she met Salako sometime in 2018, when she needed a man to protect her from attacks and intimidation she was suffering from people who wanted to also take over her father's estate.
According to her, before then, she had her first child who is currently four years old after she was raped, and another child from a man who promised to marry her but later abandoned her.
However, trouble started in September 2020 when Salako introduced one man from her Nnobi town, Chief Peter Chijioke Okaa to her to purchase a piece of land from her inherited landed property and she sold it to him at N2million but latter the buyer pleaded with her to grant him access road to that piece of land.
She added that she obliged that by offering Okaa a part of her estate where she already had a bungalow to knock down to create access to his property but demanded Okaa to build another bungalow for her in a part of the estate as a replacement for the one knocked down.
Unfortunately, Mr Okaa, according to Nsube, abandoned the bungalow he was constructing for her as a replacement as they agreed earlier and requested to buy the entire estate from her and use the sum of ₦10million which is the value of the entire estate to build a house for her elsewhere.
Nsube said it was in the process that Salako lured her to sign a document mortgaging the estate to Okaa without the latter having purchased a land somewhere else and building a house for her to relocate to with her children.
She added that when Okaa failed to fulfill his promise, Salako introduced another person from Nnobi, Mr Bonaventure Ezekwenna, who came through his engineer and purchased the property at the same ₦10 million and she signed and handed over all the necessary documents for him, including the Power of Attorney and Deed of Conveyance.
Nzube said that it was after the sale of the land to the United States of America based Ezekwenna that Salako lured her to run away with him to Lagos, and from their they went to Ilepeju in Otta, Ogun state where he further introduced her to one Mike who sold an uncompleted building at N2.8million to her.
She explained that after purchasing the building, Salako collected the sum of N4m from her to renovate the building and another N500,000 but never allowed her to see any documents relating to the purchased building, even as he spent the sum of N15million she earlier realised from sale of her another inherited land.
Nzube also told the Court that she got to know that Salako was actually from Benin Republic when police tracked her to Lagos following complaint by Mr. Bonaventure Ezekwenna as he ( Salako) advised that they should escape to Cotonou as his parents were there.
She said that the police later arrested her and Salako and they made statements at the Lagos State CID, and other police commands.
Meanwhile, the Chief Magistrate of the court, Ken Okoye had adjourned the case to September 15, 2023 at 12noon.
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