Bailiffs of the Federal High Court in Lagos have evicted popular comedian Atunyota Alleluya Akpobome, better known as Ali Baba, from a Victoria Island property.
His company, XQZMOI TV, was also ordered out of the premises, which has been at the centre of a long-running legal dispute.
The enforcement took place on August 15, 2025, following a writ of possession issued after Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa’s July 31 ruling that dismissed a suit filed by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria,AMCON, and upheld a counterclaim by Harold Expansion Industries Nigeria Limited.
The property at 324A Akin Ogunlewe Street had been sold by AMCON to Ali Baba in 2021 for ₦220 million, despite an existing preservation order while litigation was pending.
AMCON had argued that Harold Expansion Industries owed the defunct Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank) ₦617 million from loans granted in 2008. It said the property was disposed of as part of recovery efforts.
But Harold Expansion, represented by lawyer Benjamin Olayiwola Sadibo, countered that the ₦129 million loan was a restructured consolidation of earlier borrowings that had been serviced since January 2008.
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The company maintained that AMCON’s action was unlawful and sought repossession along with damages.
In his judgment, Justice Lewis-Allagoa ruled that AMCON failed to prove its case, stressing that it did not provide Harold Expansion’s statement of account—an omission the court described as fatal under Section 131(1) of the Evidence Act 2011.
The judge also noted that AMCON failed to defend the counterclaim. “Where a defendant counterclaims against a claimant, the latter is duty-bound to file a defence; otherwise, the court is obliged to assume that the claimant has no defence,” he stated.
The court subsequently ordered the return of the duplexes to the original owner’s family and awarded ₦500 million in damages against AMCON.
Ali Baba, who was said to be a tenant of the property’s late original owner before AMCON’s intervention, had fully converted the premises into XQZMOI TV’s studios and corporate office.
Crediblenewsng.
