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•He has no claim, says NDIC
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and Senator Farouk Bello Bunza are battling over a parcel of land in Banana Island, Lagos.
The land located at Plot 55, Zone J. Federal Government Layout, Banana Island, Ikoyi,Lagos, was sold to Senator Bunza by the defunct Heritage Bank.
Bunza, who made documents relating to the land and correspondence with the NDIC available to newsmen in Abuja, at the weekend, said his dispute with the banking regulator is his purchase of the said property valued at N4.76 billion at the time he bought it in June, 2024.
He disclosed that out of the agreed sum, he paid N2.5 billion as at November 18, 2025.
The NDIC had, in a November 18, 2025 letter, signed by Ewoso A.O and Okosun Patricia A., both deputy directors, acknowledged this and committed to releasing the title documents of the said documents upon payment of the balance.
However, the NDIC, reviewed the terms of payment contained in the earlier agreement which was a monthly installment payment of N100 million over 36 months period to a revised payment of N358.1 million monthly within six months.
The former federal lawmaker approached his bankers, Coronation Merchant Bank, for a facility to offset the balance.
The bank subsequently wrote the NDIC for the title documents. The NDIC then wrote another letter signed by an Assistant Director, Ogono A.U, on behalf of the Director, Asset Management Development, withdrawing its earlier commitment to release the said documents.
It asked Coronation Bank to disregard the contents of the commitment letter noting that it did not reflect the position of the bank on the matter.
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Documents made available by the NDIC on its part, indicated a change in the repayment terms citing depositors interests in the liquidated bank.
A September 23, 2025 letter, signed by Henry Fonab, Head, Legal the NDIC said in part: “After a careful consideration the corporation regrets to inform you (Bunza) that it cannot ratify the contract of sale for the Lagos property after considering the interest of the depositor.
“As communicated in our letter dated 24th October, 2024, the sale price of N4,500,600,000 and 36 -months payment time line are not acceptable as this will jeopardize the efforts of the corporation to discharge its deposits protection mandate.
“In the light of the forgoing, we reiterate our revised offer for the Lagos property at the reviewed sale price of N7,005, 000.00 only.”
The NDIC is insisting the former lawmaker has no claim to the land.
“There’s no deal between the senator and NDIC. Since the revocation of Heritage Bank’s license, and a new deal was proposed to him, he refused to sign. There was an Offer of new award to Bunza by NDIC on new terms. He refused to accept new terms and a second letter reminding Bunza to accept a new offer which he declined to accept. (Senator) Bunza has no legal basis to request for the title documents having failed to pay the revised property price within six months. He asked for 36 months which was rejected by NDIC…”
A source within the NDIC who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, explained that the documents Bunza was asking for were not in its custody. This, the source said, was because they were being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
However, another NDIC source said since the former lawmaker refused to accept revised conditions of payment for the land, he cannot lay claim to the property.
But, Senator Bunza disagreed. “I want NDIC to respect the agreement with (the defunct) Heritage Bank and release the title documents of the land. I will appreciate it if the contract is respected,” he insisted.
