A federal high court judge, Justice Babatunde Olaide Quadri is alleged to be at the centre of a property deal gone-sour in London.

The matter is now a pending fraud case at the Ibadan zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission where one Olaide Sanni was arrested and granted bail over the property transaction mess.

According to Sanni, Justice Quadri is a bosom friend of his who is frequent to his abode in London anytime he visits, adding that in 2012, the judge approached him of his intention to buy a property in London.

“Since I don’t deal in property business, I introduced him to an agent called Remi Akande who is known to be a property broker to help him with the transaction” Sanni said.

He narrated that Justice Quadri paid Akande the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand (£115,000) through Divine Global Money transfer as deposit, promising to send the balance when he returned to Nigeria.

While the agent was waiting for the balance Sanni said, he didn’t get back to the agents only after several months when the judge decided that he would like to have a refund rather to go ahead with the purchase.

He said ‘It was in the midst of this entire crisis Justice Quadri flew to London to meet with the agent to get his money and I was told he got some while the agent promised to be paying him back installmentally’

“I was surprised when on August 30th EFCC arrested me and freeze my UBA account, I told them what happened and I was eventually released with a clause to report every Wednesday while my passports were seized. Now I can’t go back to work and suffering from what I genuinely don’t know anything about” he explained.

Reacting to the matter, the estate agent writes “I write to inform you that I did not owe Mrs Yemi Ariyo any money and we didn’t have any business transaction together .

Mrs Yemi was mentioned to me on phone conversation with my client (Justice Quadri) for the first time during the time of our dealings, as the senior sister to his wife from Ireland and just relocated to London, she visited my office once on behalf of my client and I explained the stage of the house he wanted to buy and as we are still waiting for the half of the fund since the last six months.

Also to inform you that Mr Olaide Lukman Sanni was not involved with any money or debt outstanding in this house purchase nor having anything to do with Mrs Ariyo through me, Mr Olaide Sanni is my friend and a friend also to my client, he just introduced him to me with a trust.

The fact here was that my client delayed the balance for the house he was trying to buy for seven months while his initial deposit was still with me, we lost the property after six months waiting by the vendor and her Estates Agent advised her to sell to a serious buyer. My client came back and we got another house in the area of his choice again where he met the vendor on one to one, he told us he was fully ready then and he will send the rest of the balance as soon as possible.

For us not to lose the second property after one month he left and for the pressure from vendor’s Estate Agent, I transferred the initial payment with me to the account of the our conveyance Solicitor Mr Jude Ogabi of Venus Solicitors, Old Kent Road London to forward it to the Vendor/ agent solicitor pending the time my client will send the balance, thus the solicitor advised that we need the full payment as the instruction from the vendor’s end, here we waited for another 8 months from July 2013 to March 2015.

It was this time my client requested that we should send the money back to him to use for another business as he still going to buy the house later. I called the conveyance solicitor then and he claimed as he was trying to take the money out of their account but there was a problem of money laundering with their firm and we should be patient as the deposit has been there for too long. When the pressure was too much from my client and Mrs Yemi Ariyo as his representative here , I paid £5,000 my own personal money to Mrs Ariyo’s account while still waiting for refund from the solicitor. I got the solicitor later and he told me that their firm got problem with some other things and they have closed down, he promised to refund the money back but up till today, I am still waiting, I have travelled to Port-Harcourt Nigeria twice to find him but all efforts were abortive.

My conclusion here is what I have told my client that as soon as I found Mr Jude their money will be refunded, or anything I can get I will pay them bit by bit pending the time solicitor refund the money as he has the major fault in this case”

All efforts to reach the judge proved abortive as calls to his phone were not answered non returned at the time of filling this report.