In 2013, a judgment delivered by the LPDC found Temidayo Eseyin guilty of infamous conduct … and directed the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court to strike off his name from the roll of legal practitioners. Now, he is back in crime ways. Gbolahan Balogun reports.
Precisely ten years after Temidayo Eseyin, a pastor with the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel was found guilty of professional misconduct involving N155.3 million fraud and derobed as a lawyer, the infamous Ilorin based con-man has again found himself against the law for alleged criminal acts.
The Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, arraigned Eseyin for allegedly defrauding Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State to the tune of N19.3million.
Eseyin, a former member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin Branch was docked on a four-count charge bordering on dishonestly misappropriation of funds belonging to the University before Justice Funsho Lawal of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin.
In a statement, the EFCC said a petition to it accused “Eseyin, whilst being a counsel/Attorney to Landmark University, Omu-Aran had access to her properties, title documents and funds.
“In the assumed capacity, it was alleged that Mr. Eseyin was cheating, defrauding, misappropriating and shortchanging his client to her utmost dismay.
"Specifically in one of his alleged atrocities, the defendant, between 2014 – 2022 managed a property known as “Old Midland Building” belonging to Landmark University, situated along Emir’s/Obbo Road, Ilorin, which rents Mr. Eseyin collected for 8years and could not produce when asked.
The petitioner also alleged that Mr. Eseyin attempted to sell the property without instructions from the University. Hence, the petition to the EFCC.
Count 3 of the charges reads: “That you, Temidayo Eseyin sometime in the year 2021, in Ilorin Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court dishonestly misappropriated the sum of Six Million, Sixty Four Thousand Naira Only (6, 064,000) representing payment of rent on property known as Old Midland Building belonging to Landmark University and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 309 of the same Law.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Following his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Rashidat Alao, urged the court to fix a date for trial, while praying the court to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre pending trial.
However, Eseyin’s lawyer, Femi Makinde, moved an application for the bail of the defendant. He prayed the court to admit his client to bail pending trial.
While ruling on the application, Justice Lawal, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties in the sum of N5million each. The judge ordered that the sureties must have landed property within the jurisdiction of the court.
He adjourned the case to a date, which he said would be communicated to the parties. He also ordered that the defendant should be remanded in the custody of the EFCC pending the perfection of his bail conditions.
Eseyin, 51 had faced a similar charge about ten years back, when one Mrs Omotayo Oluleye, trading under the name Samvour Nigeria Enterprise wrote a petition dated January 18, 2010 to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Disciplinary Committee of the North Central Zone against him.
Oluleye had sought Eseyin’s legal service for the recovery of =N=155,342,6000:00 in the Suit No. KWS/83/09. He conned the business woman and coveted her money.
Investigation conducted by the NBA into the allegations against him found that Eseyin was indeed engaged by Mrs Oluleye, to conduct a case for her in court in Ibadan, Oyo State, which involved fraudulent withdrawal of =N=95,000,000 from her account.
But he never prosecuted those cases to a logical conclusion. In fact, during oral investigation, he admitted that he abandoned an appeal in the Court of Appeal, Ibadan, yet he said he charged the petitioner =N=10,000,000:00 for those cases and deducted the money from the proceeds of the judgment for a case he did not do.
Having failed to recover any money for her in the said cases, Eseyin advised her to institute an action to recover the sum of =N=155,000,000:00 with IBTC Bank in Ilorin on which the Central Bank of Nigeria had placed an embargo.
Oluleye, who had always been Eseyin’s client and on whose instruction he had conducted the cases in Ibadan, turned out to be the defendant in the Suit No. KWS/83/09 between Marcus & 5 Ors v Omotayo S. Oluleye & Orst. In that case, Eseyin acted for some fictitious claimants.
He allegedly handed part of the money recovered from the suit to the petitioner for distribution among the claimants to the suit.
Though he was never appointed a liquidator, he claimed to have disbursed some of the money also to creditors, who were only known to him.
He also unilaterally deducted =N=40 million, details of which was =N=30 million as professional fee and =N=10 million for another case he admitted he did not prosecute.
The NBA Disciplinary Committee recommended that Eseyin be tried for:
i. Mismanagement of client’s money
ii. Representing conflicting interests
iii. Any other charge or charges that the National Disciplinary Committee may wish to frame after looking into the matter.
It accordingly forwarded the case file to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC for adjudication.
In a judgment delivered by its Chairman, the LPDC found Temidayo Eseyin guilty of infamous conduct in the course of the performance of his duty as a legal practitioner and directed the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court to strike off his name from the roll of legal practitioners.
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