N130m Land Scandal Began With Mix-up Over My Late Husband's Property - Ex. Lagos Dpty Governor

Former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, says the land dispute that led to a fraud allegation against her started with a simple mix-up over which plot her late husband actually owned.

Ojikutu, who spoke in an interview during the 2026 PR Forum/CSR Exhibition & Award, said a land agent had wrongly identified a vacant plot as her husband's property, when his real land was on the neighbouring plot, which had already been developed.

"The claimed N130m scandal was politically motivated because it resulted from a misidentification of the land by the agent, rather than a deliberate act," she said. "It was simply a case of misidentifying the location of the land. A virgin plot was mistakenly identified as belonging to my late husband due to an error by the surveyor, while my husband's actual land was beside the said property and had already been built on."

She said the vacant plot was being fought over by touts before it was brought to her attention.

After her lawyer checked the land registry and found no encumbrance on it, she decided to sell it.

The trouble surfaced only after the buyer began developing the land and was confronted by another person claiming ownership, she said.

Further investigation then revealed that her husband's actual property was the plot next door, and that someone had sold it without any clear evidence that he had authorised the transaction.

Ojikutu's son, Sampson, was pulled into the case because he had been helping her manage her late husband's estate, she said.

She said she refunded the buyer once the dispute broke out, and disputed the widely reported figure. "I refunded part of the money. I initially paid him N50m, leaving N70m, which I later repaid in full. So, it was not N130m as was reported at the time, but N120m," she said.

She was declared wanted after a petition was sent to the police in June 2014 alleging that she and her son were involved in the N130m land scam in Lekki, Lagos State.

Ojikutu said the matter turned political because it coincided with an election campaign she was heavily involved in.

"The buyer was coerced to report the transaction as fraudulent while the funds were being put together," she said.

"While the matter was being resolved, political incrimination set in. An election was approaching at the time, and I was at the forefront of the campaign," she said.

"They used the situation as an opportunity to scandalise me to cause public disaffection. The efforts to scandalise me were to damage my well-known reputation of a lifetime of working and preaching against corrupt practices."

The first elected female deputy governor of Lagos State also denied ever fleeing the country, after reports claimed she left Nigeria to escape the allegations when she travelled to the United States.

She said attempts were made to damage her reputation further by contacting the US Embassy to seek her extradition.

"I informed the police then of my pre-scheduled plan to travel, but as soon as I flew out they declared me wanted. I did not overstay my visit to the USA, which was for medical reasons," she said.

She said she has since gone to court to reclaim her late husband's property, and rejected any suggestion that she had ever misused public funds.

"I have never taken a kobo illicitly in any of the public institutions where I have worked. They decided to scandalise me because of my stance against such practices," she said.