BARRISTER BANJO ABASS' RESPONSE

SQUIB BAR NEWS 1

BARRISTER BANJO ABASS' RESPONSE (INTERVIEWED ON 13TH JUNE 2008 IN HIS CHAMBERS)
“I have seen a copy of Mr. Ajayi's petition to you against me. And I thank you for coming to hear from me. You see the man is well known to me. In fact we are close friends and I have been doing may cases for him before the present one and I have not been charging as I ought because he is my friend and many times says he doesn't have money.

For this case all the money I collected from him was four thousand to file joinder application to the suit brought against his principal the Eniolorundas. The other ten thousand naira that I got was from the Eniolorunda people. And it is not true that he was the one who introduced the two brothers Taiwo and kehinde Eniolorunda to me. It was only Kehinde that he introduced to me, whom he brought to my office. I met Taiwo separately in the course of the case.
After conducting search into the case file of the matter, I realised that a judgement, which was not appealed against had been given on the land against Taiwo and Kehinde, Ajayi's landlord.
So I advised that it is better to settle the matter and for him to seek compensation. Towards that end the both of us (Ajayi and I) met with Mr. Okunniyi, counsel to the claimant and the claimant's representatives.
At that point they offered Ajayi for himself alone eight hundred thousand naira (N800,000:00). But Ajayi refused saying he could only be content with N1.5million naira. At that point, the other side felt that it was not wise to be dealing alone with Ajayi who is just a developer. They felt they needed to deal also with his allotters, to avoid complications later.
Meanwhile Ajayi's principals, Taiwo and Kehinde had their grudges against him. According to them, their agreement with Ajayi was that he would within a year developed the land, but five years down the line he was yet to do that. All he had done was to do the foundation and put up the building just about six blocks up the foundation.
Fortunately for us we won the case at Justice Abiru's court. But it was what I will call a technical judgement. We didn't win on the merit. Nonetheless I used our victory to negotiate with our opponents to settle with us and avoid the expense of long-drawn litigation over the land. They offered us N600,000:00, of course we rejected that. At that point Ajayi claimed he could get the land sold for five million naira. At all times he said he would only concede leaving the land, if he personally could be paid N1.5million.
Negotiations, essentially between and the claimant's lawyer, Mr. Okuniyi dragged on for four months, all this to the knowledge of Ajayi.
Eventually the claimant decided to pay N1.2million to settle the defendants, and nothing beyond that.
It is true that the claimant came to see me in my chambers but I never know he would be coming. When people visit me in the office, I don't drive them away, even if they were rival party. My style is to hear them out, only when I feel their request is such that I need instruction or clarification from my client, that's when I feel the necessity they should meet my client. That's has been my attitude but we learn everyday. When I came out of the meeting with Alhaji Taofeek, that was when I saw Ajayi in the reception, I didn't know he too was in the office. What Alhaji Taofeek came to tell me was that he decided to come to me personally because he was dissatisfied with the pace of his lawyer, who he claimed was then more of a pastor than a lawyer. According to Alhaji he was ready to pay the settlement sum of N1.2 millon.
I explained the situation to three of them Taiwo, Kehinde and Ajayi, but Ajayi was adamant on receiving nothing less than 1.5million. The twins were of a different mind, they were ready to collect whatever they could get.
I was carrying Ajayi all along up to the point of he insisting on going with the case, if he could not get N1.5million naira. He said I betrayed him. How? He was not prepared to listen to my advice that given the existence of the adverse judgement, and the fact that the land described in the judgement fitted almost completely the land in dispute, we would not win eventually at the courts of law, whereas his principals were ready to listen to this advice.
Mind you while it is true that I knew him before the Eniolorundas but you know they all had become my clients, by virtue of my representation of them in court. When the money was paid his portion came down to N330,000 naira (note that my fees had been deducted from the capital sum) but till date he has refused to come for it. But the money is intact and with me.
I think in the circumstances of this case, I think I have achieved some good things for my clients. I believe Ajayi is talking out of ignorance and frustration”.

MR GBOLAHAN AJAYI'S REACTION TO BARRISTER BANJO ABASS'S RESPONSE (INTERVIEW CONDUCTED ON 16TH JUNE 2008 IN THE OFFICE OF THE SQUIB)
“No, lawyer Banjo Abass is not my friend. He is just my Muslim brother. It is not true that I have not been paying full charges for my cases, although some-times he reduces money for me. For this case, all the money I gave to him is N50,000:00 and not N4,000:00. And I know that Taiwo and Kehinde also gave him N30,000:00. It is not true that I only developed the building to only the level of six blocks, rather I have raised it to lintel level. Take a look of the picture of the building.
As for lawyer Okuniyi, the lawyer to Alhaji Taofeek, Banjo Abass disclosed to me right from the beginning that Okuniyi is his friend. While it is also true that Abass advised me on the weakness of our case because of the High Court judgement against Taiwo and Kehinde Eniolorunda but that was even before he moved his motion in Justice Abiru's Court. It was me who told him to move the application before the judge that I was prepared for any outcome.
There was no time that Taofeek offered to pay me N800,000:00, but even if he had, I wouldn't have taken it because I know how much have spent on developing the land.
And if Abass says the land in the judgement covered virtually all the land in dispute, that cannot be. If covered only half of the land.
I agree that Taiwo and Kehinde became his clients but they came to him through me and I believed that he ought to have protected my interests above theirs. I am his principal client.
It is not true that I met Taofeek (the claimant) in Abass's office only once. It was twice. The first time I met Taofeek in the reception of Abass's chambers we sat down together when Banjo called him into his chambers. After he finished with Taofeek, he now called me and I asked him what it was the discussed with Taofeek and why did Taofeek come to his office?
Banjo's reply was that there was going to be a joint meeting of all the parties. He did not disclose to me what transpired between them.
The second time was about a month after the first incident. That was when I saw him escorting Taofeek out of his chambers . That was when I told him that he should not cheat me, or betray me whilst pretending to be friend or protector”