The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has taken over the prosecution of the criminal charges against some Ghanaian investors and owners of the JonahCapital Ltd in the River Park Estate dispute.
The Nigeria Police Force had on June 25 filed a 26-count criminal charge before an FCT High Court in Gwarinpa against the directors of JonahCapital Ltd, namely Sam Jonah, Kojo Ansah, Victor Quainoo, a company, Mobus Property Nigeria Ltd, and their Nigerian lawyer, Abu Arome, alleging forgery of the ownership document of the company.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, a state counsel, Aderonke Imana, informed the court that the AGF had instructed her to take over the matter, relying on the powers granted in Section 174 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999.
“I have the instructions of the honourable Attorney General of the Federation to take over the case from the Nigeria Police Force, so that we can have the opportunity to review the case file because there are a lot of letters and petitions to that effect,” she said.
The counsel noted that the Nigerian police had so far failed to release the case file to the AGF.
In the absence of any objection, Justice Modupe-Osho Adebiyi granted the application and fixed the matter for further hearing on November 11.
Objecting to the charges, JonahCapital directors and their lawyer contended the criminalisation of routine filings with the CAC and land disputes.
They recalled that they had notified land subscribers and the public in May that the police were trying to suppress the 10-man investigation panel that examined the same allegations of forgery made against them by one Paul Odili of Paulo Homes, an adverse claimant in the matter.
They further contended that the latest charges arose from a fresh report, hastily put together by the Head of the IGP Monitoring Unit, Akin Fakorede, which indicted them without hearing from them.
It would be recalled that the Minister of the FCT Nyesom Wike, had on Channels TV on Thursday, September 18, said the ministerial panel on the matter found that the FCT signed an agreement with JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd, promoted by Sir Samuel Esson Jonah as the original owners of the Plot 4 Cadastral, Zone E30 Lugbe, Abuja, during the tenure of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Wike said a dispute arose when JonahCapital brought in a third party (Paulo Homes) to help them obtain building approvals from FCT Development Control in exchange for some shares.
The minister also affirmed the Ghanaian investors’ ownership of River Park Estate.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Head of the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit, Fakorede allegedly made a clandestine move to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), pressuring the organisation to release company records in the River Park Estate crisis in Abuja.
Fakorede had allegedly visited the CAC office in Abuja in a plot to influence the River Park Estate case, which was under review by the Attorney-General of the Federation, sources confirmed to SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters learnt that on September 3, under the pretext of a mere “courtesy call,” CP Fakorede stormed the office of the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Sources confirmed that during the closed-door meeting, he attempted to coerce the Registrar General into illegally overturning the binding directive of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) — a directive which had explicitly ordered the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to stand down on all actions relating to the parties involved, until the AGF’s ongoing review is concluded.
The action constitutes not only a flagrant breach of Nigeria’s constitutional order, but also a direct challenge to the supervisory authority of the AGF, whose letter of 21st July, 2025 — addressed to the Inspector-General of Police — invoked Section 105(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, ordering the immediate transmission of the case file and a halt to all proceedings in Charge No. CR/402/25 pending legal advice
“Any attempt to tamper with company records or reassign control during active litigation is not just unlawful but a direct violation of Section 41(6) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA), which expressly prohibits the alteration of company information while a dispute is pending before a competent court,” one of the sources had stated.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation also formally instructed the Nigerian police to halt all actions relating to Charge No. CR/402/25, filed by the police on June 26, and transmit the entire case file to the AGF for independent review.