Nollywood actress Mimi Orjiekwe disproved social media reports of a police arrest related to a fict#tious 700 million naira fr@ud allegation made by UK-Dion’s Mr. Michael Diongoli, a former P%nzi finance operator who is currently facing 61 crim#nal counts for 3.7 billion naira fr@ud by the EFCC and Interpol at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
According to numerous reports, the actress was being held by the Nigerian Police as a result of Michael Diongoli’s unfounded accusations, but her legal team has now revealed that both the alleged arr£st and the 700 million naira claim were fals£.
Mimi only visited the Ikoyi police station’s Special Fraud Unit on the invitation of the police, according to a tweet from Mimi’s attorney, Barr Chino Obiagwu SAN, on Wednesday. This was because of allegations made by Mr. Michael Diongoli, who purchased furniture from Mimi’s interior decoration business, FBM Homes, in 2021.
“Despite Section 8(2) of the Administrative Crim¥nal Justice Act of 2015, @policeng continues to detain and make arr£sts of suspects in connection with civil transactions. Recently, SFU invited my client, the interior designer and actress @MimiOrjiekweng, to discuss a contract dispute. Police impunity must end immediately.
Diongoli, who owes 89 million naira in storage and clearance fees, resorted to using the police to intimidate his client in order to take possession of the goods without paying, according to Barr. Obiagwu.
Mr. Diongoli alleged that Mimi had defr@uded him by refusing to deliver the furniture he had paid for. Additionally, he misrepresented the contract’s value, saying it was worth 700 million naira when it was only 472 million.
Mimi is alleged to have claimed at the police station that the civil transaction between her and Mr. Diongoli was purely contractual and was not subject to the police’s criminal purview.
As a result of her employees being asked to leave the construction site after the building was seized by the EFCC and Interpol, FBM Homes was unable to finish the installation of the furniture at Diongoli’s.
When Mr. Diongoli was released from custody, he refused to pay the remaining balance of $89 million, which includes storage and clearance fees, for the furniture that had been purchased for his home and was being stored in a secure warehouse.
The Federal High Court in Lagos has received a complaint from Ms. Orjiekwe’s attorney challenging Mr. Michael Diongoli’s strategies of using the police to h@rass and thr£aten her in order to collect the remaining furniture without paying the outstanding balance. Additionally, the ill£gal posts about the alleged arr£sts made as a result of the fals£ acc¥sations made by Mr. Diongoli on blogs like “cutie juiz” and others were included in the court claims, in which a settlement of N200m has been requested on her behalf.
Since the Police Act of 2020 and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 make it clear that no crim¥nal charge can result from a situation that borders on civil transactions, Mimi has since resumed her regular life and business.