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…He’s a fraud – PMAN boss
From: WOLE BALOGUN
A film editor, Ibrahim Faleti has dragged the President of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, Mr. Pretty Okafor, to court for threat to life.
But Okafor who denied the allegation, has alleged that Faleti is a fraud who has bolted away with money, some jobs given him to do and editing equipment.
In a suit with No PHC/L/CC/459/17 at the Federal High Court, Lagos, Faleti said he was contracted by Okafor in October, 2016 to edit a Reality TV show named ‘The Real Face of An African Child’ for the sum of #500,000. He said he got an advanced payment of #200,000 to commence the project with an outstanding balance of #300,000.
He added that Mr Okafor also gave him a cheque of #150,000 to purchase a fairly used laptop in his name for the project.
According to him the project started experiencing setback as a result of lack of electricity in Okafor’s office and the generator could not help much because of its low capacity. In an attempt to complete the job on time, Faleti said he asked Okafor for #50,000 from his outstanding balance of #300,000 to purchase additional hard drive as the initial 3 were no longer enough for the project, which Okafor granted.
Faleti alleged further his request for outstanding balance for transportation and up keep resulted in violent attack from Okafor. “He hit me on my head with a plank, pushed me out of his office and kicked me down the stair case. It took the intervention of his wife to stop his attack on me. Being not satisfied, he later invited three heavily armed policemen to his office to harass, intimidated, embarrass and coarse me to sign an understanding under duress. For three hours, i was locked up in his office against my will and the three police officers insisted that i write an undertaking to complete the job or else i would not be allowed to go. “he said.
In order to keep part of his agreement, Faleti said stayed back to salvage the contract but he said he didn’t get the enabling environment and cooperation from Okafor but all he got were threats and accusations.” Since 1st of January, 2017 date, Okafor has been using policemen to threaten my life. The police officers have raided my office and residence several times with the view of arresting and detaining me. Since the beginning of this year to date, I have been in hiding and this has greatly affected my family life as my pregnant wife and children are also on the run with me. I am highly apprehensive by the actions of Okafor and the police officers. Instead of Okafor to appear in court since the case has started he refused and has been sending assassins against me. The case is already slated for June 14.”
Reacting to Faleti’s accusations, Okafor, who spoke to Daily Sun on phone, described Faleti as a liar and fraud. “He is a liar and fraudster. He has stolen my laptop. He took money for me to do some editing job. He never delivered the money in spite of collecting N400,000 out of N500,000 that he billed me. He also stole my laptop, took away the work I gave him. And some other electronic gadgets. He has been running away from me since then. The people who owes the job have been on my neck. Even the police have been looking for him for me. I only scolded him in my office, I didn’t assault him physically. I am not aware of his legal action against me at all.
