Alleged N2m car debt: Auto dealer threatens Balyesa council chairman with law suit

A Lagos based auto dealer, Ifeanyi Okafor, has threatened to seek the assistance of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover an alleged N2 million debt from the chairman, Brass local government area, Bayelsa state, Mr. Bellow Bina.

The said amount is the balance for the purchase of a Range Rover SUV 2008 model he purchased from the auto dealer four years ago.

Mr. Okafor, through his lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Ogundele, in a demand letter, is asking the Brass council chairman to redeem the debt, as he threatened to go to EFCC.
The letter was copied to the governor of Bayelsa state, the commissioner, Local Government Affairs, and the , EFCC chairman.

Okafor also alleged that Mr. Bina issued a UBA cheque with the number 04341636 on August 6, 2013 as balance payment for the SUV, but he said the cheque was dishonoured.

In the demand letter written dated April 11, 2017, counsel to the car dealer, Ogundele, said that the cheque given to his client “was dishonoured and returned unpaid because there was no sufficient fund in your account or in alternative you fraudulently use the cheque to obtain the goods under false pretence.”

Ogundele reminded Mr. Bina that “the act of offering dud cheques for credit, goods and services is an offence under section 1(1) of the Dishonoured Cheques (Offence) Act, Cap 11, Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004.”

He stated that as Brass council chairman, he is not immune from prosecution.
He said he was compelled to copy the governor of the state because of the alleged negative attitude of Mr. Bina to his client for record purposes.

“Except we receive positive response for the payment of the outstanding sum of N2million for the purchased and delivered Range Rover Sports (2008) JSUV within two weeks from receipts of this letter of demand, we shall set criminal machinery in motion through the EFCC, Abuja with all its attendant criminal consequences “, he added.

Mr Bina, when called severally on his MTN line 07034811111, he did not pick the call and neither did he respond to a text message sent to him.