‘I can’t pay rent because Peace Corps bill has not been signed’

A major casualty in Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Peace Corps Establishment Bill was recorded yesterday as an Abeokuta Customary Grade II Court sitting at Ake ordered the eviction of a member of the Corps, Akintunde Adewole, and his family from their roomand-parlour apartment over a two-month rent arrears.

Adewole’s landlord, Alhaja Noyinmotu Balogun, had, through her caretaker, Alexander Amujo, sought for Adewole’s eviction and payment of the rent debt.

The defendant admitted in court that he was, indeed, owing the rent, but put the blame on the refusal of President Buhari to sign the Peace Corps bill into law.

“I was working before joining the Peace Corps about three years ago with the hope it would be a federal agency. But since the problem started, I have not been able to raise money to offset my rent. In fact, I lost my mother, too, during this period. It is just too bad for now. I just want the court to beg the caretaker because I don’t have any issue with the landlord,” he pleaded.

Amujo rejected a plea by the president of the court, Chief Olalekan Akande, to give Adewole a soft landing. Chief Akande had told the caretaker, “Don’t send him to where he does not want to go,” a plea Amujo rejected, stressing that the landlord was in dire need of the apartment and the outstanding rent arrears.

Akande then turned to defendant, “As you can the see, we have tried for you for the caretaker to soft-pedal, but he refused. I will blame you for this situation you have found yourself. How could you leave a secure job for uncertainty?”

He ruled that Adewole should vacate the apartment on or before May 11, 2018, adding, “You should find a way to settle with the landlord and caretaker on how to refund the rent debt of N10,000.”