The plaintiff said by virtue of a Deed of Tripartite Legal Mortgage among Onyi Nigeria Limited (borrower), Blessing Onyi Okwuokei (mortgagor) and Guarantee Trust Bank Plc dated December 8, 2011 and registered at the Land Registry, Alausa, a legal mortgage interest was created over the property. The plaintiff said the mortgagor defaulted in servicing a loan granted him by GTBank, following which the bank put out the property for sale. Nwene said he bought the property for N39million and spent over N5.1million as fees for the governor’s consent. “The defendant also executed and supplied to the claimant other documents required for the claimant to apply for and process the governor’s consent in respect of the said sale. “The claimant had passed through or scaled all the stages of the perfection and was at the final state of registration of his said interest, when it was discovered that Okwuokei had caused a caveat/caution dated May 9, 2014 to be put on the Certificate of Occupancy, thus effectively shutting out the claimant from registering his interest in the said property and also prevented the claimant from taking possession of the said property,” the plaintiff said. But the defendant (GTBank) averred that as at the time of the sale, there was no caveat registered at the Land Registry against the property. “The caveat was entered over a year after the property in question was transferred to the claimant, the defendant having delivered the requisite documents on the property to the defendant via a letter dated March 27, 2013,” the bank said. The defendant added it did all it was required to do and cannot be blamed for the plantiff’s inability to perfect his title or take possession. The case, which is before Justice Oyindamola Ogala, has been adjourned to January 26.]]>