How touts run court business in Ikeja

AYOMIDE OWONIBI-ODEKANYIN and KEHINDE AKINSEHINDE-JAYEOBA look at the strange activities going on in the backyard of the judiciary in Lagos.

Anyone wishing to notarize a document or sign an affidavit at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja? All you have to do is stop halfway between the main gate of the court and the Ikeja Police Area Command and beckon to a group of middle-aged women, bargain, produce passport-size photographs and voila! In a jiffy, you have your affidavit or notarized documents ready.

These people gather together under a tree, shouting words like “Affidavit, brother”; “Sister, affidavit” and “I can help you get your police report sharp, sharp”. They beckon to passers-by, plying their trades brazenly, not minding that their camp is between the Area F Police Command and the Ikeja High Court.

A first-time visitor would have cause to wonder how authentic an affidavit or a police report obtained under a tree is but these touts would swear on their lives as regards the authenticity of their ‘documents’.

“Sister, be assured that everything we do here is legitimate. You don’t have to worry because we get you authentic documents”, a tout boasted to a prospective client in the presence of one of our correspondents with his eyes darting around for a fresh target. Their services range from procuring affidavits and renewal of vehicle papers to police reports, notary services and even change of name in newspapers.

It is too ironic to be ignored, the seat of justice coexisting, somewhat comfortably, with illegality. The Lagos State High Court, Ikeja has just a few metres, a comfortable walking distance, separating it from where touts gather everyday to run some court businesses unhindered.

The presence of the touts in their numbers at the court each passing day is compelling, given the aggressive manner in which this set of people calls out to passers-by to do patronise them. The touts, mainly women, go after prospective clients, advertising their prowess to get “anything” done with the court in a jiffy for a fee.

What has been found surprising about the situation is the effrontery of the touts to operate in such a hallowed environment.

At the peak, legal documents are brandied and procured illegally

close to the court premises by elements alleged to be recognised by some court officials as “business partners”.

Recently, Saturday Tribune observed no fewer than 100 touts, the majority of them young girls and women, milling about the adjoining areas of the Ikeja High Court. It was gathered they even sometimes take their trade to the traffic on Oba Akinjobi Way with the desperate ones among them calling out for customers.

From Ikeja Roundabout through Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and Ikeja Police Area Command to the gate of the court, all manner of people can be found, all proposing to obtain “legal” documents for you from the courts.

Fake versus original

The level of authenticity of the services, it was gathered, depends on whom is approached. There are veteran touts and newbies. The latter are believed to generally mix genuine and fake documents. But with a veteran, ‘clients’ are said to be guaranteed genuine documents. It was learnt that whether original or fake, there is always the certainty of enjoying a quick service as against the bureaucratic official procedure, which takes a relatively long time.

The cash factor

For example, it was learnt that with these touts, a driver’s licence can be obtained in a day, provided the procurer is ready to pay double the official amount. Death certificates and letters of administrations can also be arranged in a short time. “Procuring affidavits is not a big deal. You don’t even need to appear before a Commissioner of Oaths as the law stipulates. A tout can always fill in the gap for you. The genuine ones are obtained when the touts act as a mere go-between for the customers to obtain authentically signed and stamped documents from the approved court officials. The fake ones are imprinted with stamps and signatures forged by the touts”, a respondent around the court area told Saturday Tribune.

Fighting fraud with illegality

It was gathered that the “leadership” of the touts have outlawed the use of fake stamps as it has been having a damaging effect on their business. Investigations revealed that the touts have access to some senior members of the judiciary as well as police officers, who facilitate the smooth running of their business.

“The amount a tout charges on the procurement of an affidavit depends on whether or not a person comes with a prepared document. If you have your affidavit already typed and you only need the signature of the Commissioner for Oath, you would be charged about N1,000, depending on how trusting you are. But if the touts would help you type as well as do the signing, you will pay up to N2,000.

“The fee charged by these businessmen is a far cry from what is being collected at the court. Of course, it is business and therefore, there must be gains, however, illegal. The average official fee for an affidavit in the court when it is pre-typed is between N100 and N200. However, court officials, too, do collect ‘service-added charges’ which is cleverly collected to avoid raised eyebrows”, another respondent, who craved anonymity, told Saturday Tribune.

The law stipulates conditions for the issuance of affidavits but these conditions are daily circumvented by touts and court officials who brazenly bend the rules and rob the system of millions of naira in the process.

For age declaration, the law stipulates that no declarant under the age of 50 can swear to an affidavit personally. He or she is required to come along with an older person such as the mother, the father, an uncle or an elder brother, who would inform the commissioner about his knowledge of the time the declarant was born as well as provide other necessary data about such a person. This provision of the law is being daily circumvented as court commissioners sign declarations without following stipulated procedure.

This is also the case with other documentations in the court such as loss of items and change of name. The consequence of this is that anyone could simply falsify his or her age or any declaration and still get it signed in court.

Touting benefits

“Patronising touts, however, is not without its ‘advantages’, especially when you are lucky to have an original document. Time is saved as ‘accredited touts’ are promptly attended to by court officials who help clients to overcome some technical hurdles required by law”, a person in the know of the official court procedure and the workings of the touting business told Saturday Tribune.

“For example, under the Evidence Act, every person making any statement on oath (deponent) must be physically present before the Commissioner-for-Oath or Notary Public to personally recite the oath. But, by going through touts, a client who wants to sign oaths for other person(s) does not have to bother himself with this hurdle. In a flash, the touts return with the documents duly signed and stamped. These affidavit businessmen of course do know their onion. They know the requirements, the processes and can easily navigate the court and in record time, they produce the document for which a newcomer might spend lots of time and energy moving around the court to get.

“Court officials know these touts and get stipends from them as partners in business. Sadly, many people have been conned into thinking they have original documents only to find out that they have been scammed” he added.

He related the case of a woman who paid N12,000 to get a sworn affidavit to Saturday Tribune. According to him, the woman only learnt that she had been scammed when a court official told her that getting the documents only cost N500. When the tout was accosted, he said, the tout claimed that the money was used for greasing of palms to facilitate the quick processing of the documents.

Also, Mrs Olaitan Roseline, who claimed to have been conned by a tout recounted her experience to Saturday Tribune.

“I wanted to renew my driver’s licence. A friend told me that I could get it expressly done in Ikeja. Since I work in Maryland, I drove to the High Court. As I wanted to park outside the court, a woman approached me and offered her services. Foolishly, I fell for the criteria and years of experience she listed.

“Because I wanted to drive to Ibadan at the weekend, I paid her almost N26,000 for express service. I got the papers that same day, and I was happy,” she said.

She, however, lamented that she was stopped by Road Safety officials a month later and got to discover that the papers were fake. “If not for the intervention of a senior colleague of mine whose wife was an official of FRSC, I would have been in trouble.”

Defying solutions

The menace of touting around Ikeja High and Magistrates’ courts and their environs has outlived several Chief Judges of the state. Despite efforts by the authorities of the judiciary, the problem has persisted. Several raids have been carried out by the Task Force with the aim of cleansing the court premises. These raids have resulted in prosecution of some of those arrested, but this has not stopped the activities of the touts.

Last year, the police cordoned off a large portion of the spots the touts use, but their yellow tapes were removed and business started again in full swing after a few days. Whenever a raid is carried out, there would be a lull for a few days and after that, the touts would blossom again.

Efforts to reach Mrs Grace Alo, the Public Relations Officer in the office of the Chief judge of the State for comments were futile. Several calls put through to her telephone line by our correspondent were not answered.

But an official of the Lagos State judiciary, who preferred anonymity, admitted that to control touting was a daunting challenge. He stated, however, that the authorities would continue in their efforts to rid the court premises of touting activities.

According to him, “it is difficult to control them because the courts and the premises are a public place. You cannot start to screen everyone coming to court, neither can you look at the people and turn them back on the suspicion of being touts.

“If people stop patronising them and come right into the court to conduct their business, they (touts) would be without business and go away”, he said.

In the meantime, the document touts, on Wednesday, conducted an election and chose a new president and other executive members.

The election, which takes place every six years, was keenly contested by candidates under a tree within the premises of the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.

Like in regular exercises of its kind, some disgruntled stakeholders alleged marginalisation and lack of transparency in the election.

Airing his opinion, a member of the syndicate and a dissatisfied stakeholder in the election, who claimed to have been practising the trade for over 20 years, spoke to Saturday Tribune.

“I started hustling here more than 20 years ago. These new executives are greenhorns but they feel because they are more educated, they can just push us aside. If care is not taken, I am going to form my own faction and I believe that many people will join me”, he said.