A businessman and a lawyer, Ayoola Gam-Ikon, has urged a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja to order a former Super Eagles captain, Nwankwo Kanu, to pay him N1 billion for what the claimant termed his malicious prosecution by the police.

Gam-Ikon claimed to have on March 5, 2013 been arraigned on 19-count of fraud by the police following a complaint against him by Kanu.

He, however, claimed that the entire charges were struck out on July 30, 2015 by the trial chief magistrate, following the legal advice of the Federal Director of Public Prosecutions, who absolved the claimant of the alleged offences.

But Gam-Ikon, who claimed to have lost valuable time and years of his prime life attending court and facing trial, urged the court to award damages to him against Kanu in the sum of N1 billion.

The claimant urged the court to order Kanu to pay an interest of 22 per cent on the claimed sum from December 15, 2015 till the judgment day and 10 per cent interest on the claimed sum from judgment day till the claimed sum will be fully paid.

“The claimant was devastated by the effect of his arraignment, imprisonment at Ikoyi prison during the perfection of bail and pendency of a criminal charge and has been running from one hospital to the other for medical assistance owing to his debilitating ill health and has only just started showing signs of improvement,” Gam-Ikon claimed in his suit.

The claimant claimed to have known Kanu while he was a banker with the Gulf Bank of Nigeria Plc, where he claimed Kanu had an account and he used to offer him financial management advice.

He, however, claimed to have later entered into hotel business with Kanu after he quit his job as a banker.

He claimed that Kanu and himself incorporated The Hardley Apartments Limited on April 22, 2004 on a shareholding agreement of 70 per cent to Kanu and 30 per cent to the claimant.

According to him, in the course of running the business they saw the need for expansion leading them to obtain a bank loan of N457m to raise the hotel to the five-star status.

He, however, claimed that trouble started between him and Kanu in the course of the loan repayment, culminating in his prosecution.

The case seeking damages from Kanu which was filed on Tuesday has yet to be assigned to any judge.

Sometime last year, Federal high court sitting in Lagos, western Nigeria, has ordered that all accounts belonging to former captain of the Super Eagles, Nwankwo Kanu and his company, The Hardley Apartments anywhere and in any bank or financial institution in Nigeria should be frozen pending the hearing of a suit filed against him and his company.

Also affected by the order of the court is a Director of Hardley Apartment, Ayoola Gam-Ikon.

The order of the court was as a result of a debt recovery suit filed by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) against the defendants.

In an affidavit sworn to by a Credit officer in the Directorate of AMCON, Mr Victor Igabor, and filed and argued by Barrister Niyi Olopade, the deponent averred that sometime between May, 2008 and 10 January, 2011 Skye Bank offered The Hardley Apartments engaged in business of hospitality located at Plot 46, Waziri Ibrahim Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos, a loan of N520, 457,000.

The loan was secured by a mortgage on the company’s three blocks of forty accommodation units with estimated open market value of N395 million as well as unconditional personal, joint and several guarantees of Ayoola Gam-Ikon and Nwankwo Kanu.

The defendants failed to repay the loan with the accrued interest despite repeated demands, consequent upon which Skye Bank Plc assigned the defendants indebtedness in the sum of N558,313,905.37 as at 1 April, 2011 to the AMCON as a toxic bank asset in line with the establishment objective of the said AMCON.

Mr Igabor averred further that this development was communicated to the defendants by Skye Bank who admitted their indebtedness but praying that the assignment to AMCON be revoked.

The defendants’ indebtedness as at the 15th October 2015 stood at N924,788,754.56 representing principal and interest while interest is still running.

•Sourced from Peoples Daily. Photo shows Nwankwo Kanu.