'BOKO OWES ME MONEY'
Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye East Yandani Boko has been reported to the Law Society of Botswana for playing hide and seek with a client’s money worth P35 000.
A document seen by The Midweek Sun this week bearing Botswana Law Society stamp shows Emmanuel Dema accusing Boko of having taken thousands of Pulas from him and keeping them to himself.
From Dema’s narration of events contained in his affidavit received by Law Society, he had engaged Boko as his attorney in a divorce case with his ex-wife Keneilwe Tshito-Dema.
The case was filed at Francistown High Court, presided by Judge Tshegofatso Mogomotsi. At the time, the parties agreed that Dema would pay his ex-wife P60 000.
In November last year, Dema made a bank transfer of P35 000 as part of payment of the settlement agreement from his bank account to Boko’s law firm as per Boko’s advice.
He further wrote a letter to Boko’s law firm instructing them to pay his ex- wife’s lawyers who will in turn give the money to their client.
To Dema’s shock, on the 2nd of December 2022, he received a message from his ex-wife asking him about her money. He told her that he had given Boko’s law firm some money and they were to transfer it to her lawyers then subsequently to her.
Dema then tried to reach Boko about the issue but his phone rang unanswered. He sent him messages about his ex-wife’s enquiry but to his surprise, Boko did not respond.
“I phoned counsel Yandani Boko on his mobile phone for about three months on intervals of three days in a week. I also sent him SMSes and WhatsApp messages but he never responded,” Dema’s affidavit submitted to the Law Society reads.
Dema reiterates he has been trying for the past three months to reach Boko but to no avail. Sometimes he answers his phone only to tell Dema that he is in parliament or with a client, but never returns his calls.
Dema is now worried that early this month, he received a call from his ex- wife’s lawyers reminding him of the P60 000 he was to pay their client. They also informed him that he owes them around P7 000 as cost of court time wasted.
From what he is getting now, it appears he missed two court sessions - he is shocked because as far as he is concerned, Boko was his lawyer and he was the one attending court sessions on his behalf. He feels Boko’s law firm should be made to pay the costs not him.
Realising that his ex-wife’s lawyers were serious and might just slap him with a contempt order that would land him in jail, Dema pleaded that he be given more time to find the money and speak to Boko.
They agreed to give him until the 3rd of March 2023 to find the money. He gave them P10 000, which means if Boko had given them the money he gave him, he should now be left with debt of P15 000.
To date, Dema does not know how to reach Boko and he argues that his lawyer began ignoring him after he paid him all that was due to him.
He recalled how Boko had slapped him with an invoice of P20 000 for services rendered and when he questioned him about it, Boko tore the invoice and said he should give him P10 000 instead.
“He told me to forget about the invoice, and gave me a verbal agreement of P10 000 and he tore up the invoice. His actions made me nervous,” Dema’s affidavit reads.
It adds that Boko made him pay him through ABSA bank cash send platform and he has not received receipts for the transactions even to this day.
What Dema wants is for Law Society to intervene in the matter and instruct Boko to pay the P35 000 to his ex-wife’s lawyers as well as pay the lawyers for missing court sessions and also give him his Decree Absolute which he has never seen even to this day.
When reached on Tuesday, Boko said, 'Maybe he (Dema) has not been able to reach me, I spoke to him, even today we were talking, the matter will be settled by today (Wednesday).' He then hung up.
Dema on the other hand said he was not willing to openly discuss the issue as he is waiting for the Law Society to intervene in the matter. He however confirmed to The Midweek Sun that indeed he had asked for the intervention of the Law Society. Osego Garebamono of the Law Society referred this publication to the secretariat whose input on the matter could not be raised at press time.