Justice Oke Lawal of the Lagos State High Court has fixed August 29 for ruling on the preliminary objection raised in an alleged fraud case involving a zonal pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Adewale Olajide, and an accountant, Taiwo Akinmolayan.

Olajide and Akinmolayan, who served as the chairman and financial secretary respectively with the pioneer executive of the Island Heritage Estate Association, Denro Ishashi Road, Ojodu-Abiodun, Ogun State, were accused of defrauding the estate of over N60m.

Members of the executive council, who led the association between 2010 and 2018, were alleged to have perpetrated the crime.

The alleged fraud was discovered in 2018 when the council refused to give account of its stewardship to the caretaker committee, which led to the association employing the services of an auditing firm to audit its account.

After all efforts to recover the stolen funds from the council proved abortive, the association sued the defendants to court.

The association had urged the court to compel Olajide to pay back the sum of N7,017,795,29, being the aggregate sum transferred from its account to various accounts linked to him, with accruable interests of 13.5 per cent and post judgement interests of 18 per cent.

The association also urged the court to order Akinmolayan to pay back the sum of N6,017,795,29 linked to him with interests.

However, Olajide and Akinmolayan’s counsel, Olu Folorunsho and Chijioke Nwosu, respectively, filed a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

The defendants had claimed that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter because they were residents of Ogun State and that the matter was already before another court in the state.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, counsel for the association, Mayowa Owolabi, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by one Ojumefor Agha, said the decision of the defendants to challenge the jurisdiction of the court was frivolous and false.

The affidavit read in part, “Contrary to the representation made in paragraphs 4 (a) of the affidavit of Aina Paula, the defendants work in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court. More so, the Guaranty Trust Bank wherein the defendants have allegedly diverted funds from, to their accounts, has its head office situated at Plot 635 Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court.”

After listening to the arguments of both parties, Justice Lawal adjourned till August 29 for ruling on the preliminary objection.