Olajide Awosedo of Grant Properties was the promoter of Knight Rook Limited, which is currently under receivership; owing to debts owed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), investigations have revealed.
It has been reported that over 80 percent of bad debts are owed by a few Nigerian elite, who deploy huge resources to avoid repaying the debt. One of such debtor is Grant Properties Ltd owned by Ogun State PDP stalwart Olajide Awosedo. The company is said to be indebted to several banks to the tune of about N22 billion.
The company’s financial problems crystallised when Awosedo left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Labour Party (LP), having failed to secure the Ogun state governorship ticket.
Awosedo proceeded to run in the 2007 governorship election against Gbenga Daniels in what is said to have been an unsuccessful capital intensive gubernatorial campaign.
Following his failed experiment with politics, his company was unable to repay its mounting debts – fuelling concerns that the company’s funds – running into several billions borrowed at different times as bank guarantees from a consortium of banks – Sterling, Wema, Skye and Unity – meant for real estate development, were deployed to fund Awosedo’s failed governorship campaign in Ogun State.
Awosedo has denied that he used company funds for the failed election campaign in a public letter.
Grant Properties’ debts are said to come from unpaid loans relating to the development of Goshen Beach Estate, Lekki (First Bank); Victory Park Estate, Lekki (Sterling Bank, Wema Bank, Unity Bank and Skye Bank) and Havilla Gardens, Ogun state (Access Bank formerly Intercontinental Bank and Heritage Bank).
Emerging details indicate that the company also owes FCMB, Diamond Bank, United Mortgage Bank and Providus Bank. These debts have been subject to court cases, court judgments and eligible bank assets now acquired by AMCON.
In a recent letter written to AMCON, Awosedo confirmed that his company Grant Properties was owing several banks and AMCON but that he is not personally owing any of the banks.
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