SaharaReporters had reported that the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) asked President Bola Tinubu to suspend and investigate Halilu after the owners of Mambaah Cafe/Creative Hub, Maitama, Abuja, Mrs. Zainab Akwanga and Mrs. Vivian Adzume Habila, accused him of unlawful invasion, destruction of their property and intimidation.
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, has denied using armed policemen to harass and intimidate two Abuja-based businesswomen at the Maitama Amusement Park.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) asked President Bola Tinubu to suspend and investigate Halilu after the owners of Mambaah Cafe/Creative Hub, Maitama, Abuja, Mrs. Zainab Akwanga and Mrs. Vivian Adzume Habila, accused him of unlawful invasion, destruction of their property and intimidation.
HURIWA said the two women had petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, accusing Halilu of resorting to brute force and intimidation to settle a contractual dispute with them.
However, when contacted on Monday, Halilu’s lawyer, Husseina Abdulsalam, told SaharaReporters that Halilu never used policemen to harass the women as alleged.
Abdulsalam said that though Mrs Zainab and Mrs Vivian violated the terms of their agreement including refusal to pay their rent, operating during odd hours, running unapproved business activities, environmental disturbances with extremely high music volume, using the same business area as a place of residence, and illicit use and sales of alcohol (strictly disapproved in our agreement), they were never harassed by any policemen.
Asked what happened between Halilu and the women, the lawyer said, "What is basically going on is that Zainab, the CEO and founder of Mambaah Cafe Limited, approached Olajide, a former staff member of The Cans Park Limited. He (Olajide) was the one who introduced them to The Cans.
"Khalil was not in town at that time, so Olajide proceeded to bring them in because he was close to Khalil at that time; that was in 2020.
"They said they wanted a place for their business. He (Olajide) did all the agreement and they moved in.
"In 2020, they were not paying rent because the agreement was that they should pay 30% of whatever profit they make to Khalil for the year as consideration for rent, and that is what they have been doing since 2020 till 2022. But even the 30% which is not much, they usually do not pay. They kept giving excuses, and they were violating the terms and conditions of the Maitama Amusement Park.”
Abdulsalam said that at the end of the tenor of the first agreement, the owner of Mambaah Cafe Limited, Zainab said she no longer wanted to be paying the 30%, and that she wanted to be paying rent like other tenants, to which Halilu agreed.
"We drafted a new agreement in January 2022 for them to sign and the agreement was that they will pay rent of N5 million and service charge N1 million. We will provide electricity and some other things but they will provide a generator, and we agreed.
"I signed the agreement and sent a copy to the manager of The Cans Park Limited to give them but they refused to sign their own part of the agreement.
"First, she said that she lost somebody and she was not in the right frame of mind to sign it. Meanwhile, we sent a softcopy of the agreement several times before we provided her with the hardcopy but she refused to sign. We decided to let her be.
"The agreement was that she was to pay the N6 million in instalments. She was supposed to pay N2 million in April, N2 million in August and N2 million in December, but she missed all the deadlines for last year. She made the final payment for 2022 early this year.
"The accountant of The Cans Park Limited kept sending them letters and notices to pay the rent but they refused, and the agreement clearly stated that once they failed to make payment at the stipulated time, two months after the time and they did not explain why they failed to make payment, the agreement will automatically terminate and the tenant will leave.”
According to the lawyer, the agreement was however more of a joint venture partnership as Zainab sometimes provided clients and sometimes The Cans Park Limited owned by Halilu provided clients and they would share the profit made from the clients.
"Till this October, she has not paid a dime for this year – 2023 and before she could pay for 2022, it was hell. We sent her several letters but she refused to acknowledge them but would always collect her copies. We started communicating with her through email.
"Khalil reached out to me and said that while she has refused to pay rent and refused to leave, she has turned the place upside down. And while Maitama Amusement Park does not allow the sale of alcohol, she sells alcohol and whenever she has an event, she sells illegal drugs there.
"Maitama Amusement Park reported her to Khalil and Khalil forwarded the report to her but she said she was not going to pay because we did not provide her with all the necessary things we stated in the agreement and that there was a time she did not have electricity for three months.”
The lawyer said that there was no power for the period because the transformer was faulty and it took a long time to fix it.
"I wrote a notice of owner's intention to recover possession, that is a notice to quit (and letter of demand, both dated September 25, 2023, in which Zainab was required to pay the sum of N4.5 million accrued mesne profit from January to September 2023) but she refused to answer, rather, she started using blogs to claim that Khalil is using the police to harass her. She claimed there was an event where Khalil sent some people to pack her things.
"We did not make a statement concerning that event because she claimed that she had gone to petition Khalil at the police and we were waiting for the police to call us for further investigation but none of that happened.
"We are currently in the process of going to court. She has claimed that Khalil sent some people to pack her things from the shop and that she had N4 million but she lost N1 million as a result of that while she did not mention paying rent.
"She wants to keep staying in the property without paying. It is not only that she is there and not paying, she is giving such a narrative to the media because she is a woman and she thinks the media will listen to her.
"She is only trying to tarnish the image of The Cans Park Limited and its owner because he is now a government official."
When asked again if Khalil Halilu used the police to harass and intimidate the women, the lawyer said, "No, Khalil did not use anybody to harass her at any point. What happened was that Khalil got information that they (law enforcement agents) were going to raid her shop based on the fact that she was selling alcohol.
"Because her shop and The Cans Park Limited are in the same place, Khalil asked cleaners, not the police in the office to quickly go into her shop and make sure that there were no hard drugs or alcohol so that he would not be affected as he is the person who gave the property to the women.
"That was what she turned around and said that Khalil sent people to pack her things out of the shop. Meanwhile, nobody took any of her things. If Khalil really wants to evict her, he will pack her things out of Maitama Amusement Park."