The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has overturned a 2014 ruling by the Federal High Court in Lagos, which had authorized Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) to seize a N30 billion, 44-room luxury mansion in Ikoyi, Lagos, owned by Alhaji Agboola Abiola, son of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on June 18, 2025, and certified on June 19, the appellate court invalidated the foreclosure, citing serious irregularities in the mortgage documents submitted by GTBank.
Justice Paul Bassi, who delivered the lead judgment, stated that the lower court failed to investigate credible allegations of forgery and document manipulation raised by the appellants.
The appeal, filed under suit number CA/L/888/2014, was instituted by RCN Network Limited and Alhaji Si-Nurani Abiola, with GTBank as the sole respondent.
“The lower court was in error in determining the rights of the parties based on a contentious document allegedly forged,” Justice Bassi said.
“A court cannot base its judgment on a document whose integrity is in serious doubt.”
The appellants’ legal counsel, Dr. Charles Adeogun-Phillips (SAN), argued that while RCN Network admitted signing themortgage, the second appellant, Abiola, never signed it. He claimed the execution page bearing Abiola’s signature had been fraudulently lifted from an unrelated document.
Justice Bassi pointed to inconsistencies in pagination as a red flag: the deed showed page numbers “2 of 9” through “9 of 9,” while the disputed execution page was marked “11 of 17,” suggesting it belonged to a different document set.
Additionally, the appellants alleged GTBank had illegally consolidated two separate loans — one for N508 million and another for N1 billion — without consent, despite having already liquidated pledged shares for the former.
Although police investigations into the forgery yielded mixed reports — with one recommending arbitration and another dismissing the claim — the appellate court ruled that these reports failed to address the serious discrepancies in the bank’s documentation.
The court concluded that GTBank had no legal basis to appoint a receiver or enforce the foreclosure on the Ikoyi property.
Both parties were ordered to bear their own legal costs.
The panel, which included Justices Polycarp Kwahar and Abdulaziz Anka, unanimously agreed with Justice Bassi’s verdict, setting aside the lower court’s judgment and bringing a major victory to the Abiola family.
