Appeal Court voids GTBank’s foreclosure on MKO Abiola’s Son’s N30bn Ikoyi mansion

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has overturned a 2014 ruling by a Federal High Court that granted Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) possession of a lavish Ikoyi mansion valued at N30 billion, belonging to Alhaji Agboola Abiola, the son of late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

In a unanimous verdict delivered by Justices Paul Bassi, Polycarp Kwahar, and Abdulaziz Anka, the appellate court declared the foreclosure invalid, citing serious irregularities in the mortgage documents presented by the bank.

Justice Bassi, in the lead judgment, faulted the lower court for failing to properly examine credible allegations of forgery and document manipulation raised by the appellants. He noted that the mortgage papers were riddled with discrepancies, undermining their authenticity and making them unfit for legal reliance.

The appeal, numbered CA/L/888/2014, was filed by RCN Networks Ltd and Alhaji Agboola Abiola through their legal counsel, Dr Charles Adeogun-Phillips, SAN, challenging the judgment which had earlier empowered GTBank to foreclose on the expansive 44-room Ikoyi property.

A major issue was the credibility of the tripartite legal mortgage the bank relied upon. While RCN Networks admitted signing the deed, Abiola denied ever endorsing it, claiming that the execution page said to bear his signature was lifted from a different document and fraudulently inserted.

The court observed that the pagination of the mortgage document exposed inconsistencies, with pages numbered “2 of 9” to “9 of 9,” while the execution page was curiously marked “11 of 17.” Justice Bassi remarked that this alone cast serious doubt on the document’s legitimacy.

Further complicating the matter, the appellants accused GTBank of merging two separate loan agreements without their knowledge and attempting to use a document for a N508 million loan to recover a separate N1 billion facility, even after liquidating pledged shares as security.

Though police investigations produced conflicting findings, with one recommending arbitration and another dismissing the forgery claims, the appellate court ruled that these reports did not absolve the glaring irregularities in the mortgage’s pagination and structure.

Justice Bassi concluded that the Federal High Court erred by ignoring these discrepancies and focusing solely on the interpretation of Clause 6 in a document whose integrity was highly questionable.

As a result, the court set aside the foreclosure order and ruled that GTBank had no legal basis to appoint a receiver or take possession of the Ikoyi mansion.

Both parties were ordered to bear their respective legal costs.