A woman has told a court in Ibadan, Oyo State that her landlady ejected her from her shop for allegedly discussing with the landlady’s assumed ‘enemy’.

Mrs Opeyemi Akinjobi, a hairdresser, on Thursday told the Grade C Customary Court at Bode Igbo in Ibadan that she rented a shop at Alexander, Apata area of Ibadan from her landlady.

Akinjobi told the court that she was not aware of any misunderstanding between her landlady and the person she was found discussing with.

Akinjobi said,

“Due to the nature of my work, I interact with a lot of people.

“This particular lady in question comes often to my shop and we discuss extensively. I do not know she has an issue with my landlady.

“I was discussing with this woman on one of the days when I saw my landlady passing before my shop to her house.

“Some minutes after she passed, the shop caretaker came to serve me a notice to quit the shop without a genuine reason.

“The caretaker said that the landlady claimed that I was owing two years’ rent on my shop, which is not true,’’ she said.

The hairdresser said that she had earlier paid her rent in cash to the landlady when she rented the shop to her.

“Unfortunately, I did not obtain a receipt because I made the payment at night.

“She, however, promised to give me the receipt the following day, but she did not.

“I requested twice for the receipt on different days, but she kept giving me one excuse or the other,” she said.

Akinjobi said her witnesses, who are also tenants to the landlady, would have been in court but for the fear of their landlady.

“They are afraid of being sent out by our strict landlady,” she said.

The caretaker, Mr Olusoji Ibikunle, however, told the court that he was not aware of Akinjobi making any payment to the landlady.

Ibikunle said the landlady had shown him a bank statement showing that the hairdresser was indeed owing rent up to two years.

“The directive to quit the shop came at the instance of the landlady,” he said.

The said landlady was, however, not in court.

The president of the court, Chief Muraina Agbomeji, therefore, ordered the landlady to appear in court on Feb. 11, the adjourned date.

NAN