Tenants and buyers fall prey to unscrupulous landlords and speculators as landed properties turn gold in Abuja
By Desmond Utomwen/Abuja
In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, land and housing are gold. And cashing in on the dust are fraudsters. One such suspected fraudster is Atiku Y. Abubakar.
On 29 October last year, Princess Bola Ige, a staff of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja paid Abubakar the sum of N630,000, being a year’s rent on a one-bedroom apartment Abubakar claimed to own at 30, Usuma Street, Maitama, Abuja. The apartment constitutes a part of a larger building housing other tenants. Of the sum, N500,000 was for the annual rent, while the balance covered agency and legal fees. The rent was to take effect from 30 October and expire on 29 October 2010. The transaction was done in the chambers of one Barrister Gigi Francis located at Suite C13, Bobsar Complex, Area11, Abuja.
Deal sealed, Ige moved into the apartment. Then came the shocker. On 15 December, a man strange to Ige appeared, laying claim to the same property. He ordered Ige and her co-tenants - Jumai Hamza Dan-Agalan, an IT Support Engineer at the Presidential Villa; Jemila Mohammed and Padita Adaku Aguto - to quit the apartment. While Dan-Agalan paid the sum of N1.65mn for her apartment, Muhammed and Padita paid N900,000 and N650,000 respectively. The duped victims are currently seeking the intervention of security operatives to retrieve the tenancy fees they paid Abubakar, whose ownership claim to the property the police have been investigating. Meanwhile, Abubakar has disappeared. The police and victims could not locate him at his 4 Ogun River Street, Maitama, residence and would not answer calls to his GSM lines.
In a more pathetic case, the FCT High Court is currently adjudicating in a case brought before it by the widow and children of the late Lt. Col. Hassan Yusuf. In a statement of oath deposed to by Yusuf Hassan, the eldest son of the late Colonel, the plaintiffs recounted how the original documents of a family land located in Jabi District in Abuja were forged, before the land was sold by dubious land speculators. The crisis has consequently made it impossible for the family to dispose of the property. The family are desperately seeking financial support to foot the medical bill of Habu, the deceased’s youngest son, who is suffering from a kidney ailment. Habu took ill soon after his father’s burial and doctors said he urgently requires a kidney transplant. Lacking in finances, the family had hoped to sell the plot in question to cater for the ailing Habu, until they discovered land scammers had beaten them to their treasure. Worse for the troubled family, the army authorities had ordered them to quit the apartment their late patriarch occupied in the barracks.
In his statement of deposition, Yusuf claimed that following the death of their father on 30 April 2005, the entire family travelled to their village in Yobe State for the burial rites. Their return coincided with the federal government’s directive that all persons granted Certificate of Occupancy for all lands in Abuja should apply for re-certification. This implied that the family, who had intended to dispose of the property, must first recertify it before they can sell. Against this backdrop, the plaintiffs moved to effect recertification. They, however, discovered that the original title documents of the property were missing.
Consequently, they began efforts to get the Abuja Geographical Information Services, AGIS, issue a certified true copy of the Certificate of Occupancy as a prerequisite for the mandatory re-certification. On meeting the requirements, Yusuf stated, the family was issued with a certified true copy of the Certificate of Occupancy No, FCT/ABU/BO 531 dated 17 January 2006. After the recertification, they were issued with a new Certificate of Occupancy No: 1072w-61c5z-2fb1r-17a6f-10 and file No: YB10269 on 30 June 2005 by the Minister. The said Certificate of Occupancy is pleaded.
With the CTC of the C of O, the Yusufs approached potential buyers. It was at the point of taking the buyer to the plot that they surprisingly discovered that a building was being erected there. Upon enquiry, the plaintiffs discovered the erection was being done by one Mohammed Gashash, in collaboration with Nuradeen Mohammed Bello and Mallam Teidi Shuaibu. The plaintiffs demanded that the defendants immediately stop the construction project. They followed this up with a petition to the Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Territory Authority and AGIS, reporting the said alleged encroachment and soliciting for their intervention.
The FCT Minister and officials of the FCDA were said to have ordered the defendants to stop the construction. The failure of the defendants to heed the directive prompted a further directive by the Minister that the building be demolished. But the defendants quickly headed to court to obtain what Yusuf called a “controversial court order” stopping the Minister and officials of the FCT from demolishing the plot.
It is against this move that the plaintiffs are seeking a declaration from the court that they are the true owners of the property and an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants “either by themselves, agents, privies or by whatsoever name called from further entering upon, trespassing or further trespassing on the property.” The plaintiffs are also asking the court to grant an order mandating the defendants to pay them the sum N50mn “being damages for loss of earnings occasioned by the defendants’ acts of trespass”, as well as an order mandating the defendants to pay to the plaintiffs “the cost of this action” assessed at N10mn.
A similar case affected Olunike Adesina Obube. As this magazine learnt, following an offer of terms of conveyance approval number signed by M.S.U. Kalgo, Director of Lands and Resettlement on behalf of the Minister on 17 May 2001, Plot No LD 230 in Guazape District, Abuja, was allocated to Obube. This was followed by the final approval granted by the Minister on 14 June, 2001.
While the recertification exercise was ongoing, she submitted documents on the land to the Authority for processing. The FCTA subsequently issued a document acknowledging the lodgement. However, as part of the routine check on the status of the plot at the Authority’s offices, Obube was amazed to hear from an official there that another re-certification process had been concluded by a different owner, Shelter Aid Ltd and its Managing Director, Johnson Anene. Information contained in the data bank of the AGIS revealed that one Johnson Ogunleye of Onward Properties, purportedly acted as agent to Obube, the original owner in the transfer of the title documents. To perfect the illicit transaction, Obube’s signature was allegedly forged by Gabriel Tyonongo. Obube maintains she never contacted nor instructed Ogunleye and Tyonongo or any other agent to sell the property on her behalf. To muddle up the matter for Obube, Anene, acting on behalf of Shelter Aid Ltd, has sold the property to another buyer, Obum Esiri.
Following a petition forwarded by Obube to the chairman, Forgery Committee of the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, requesting a full-scale investigation into the fraudulent transaction, both the supposed agents and the buyers were indicted of shady transactions. The committee transferred the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for further action. A similar investigation conducted by the police also found the indicted persons culpable. They are currently facing trial.
In a suit filed on behalf of Obube by Ezekiel Ugochukwu of Festus Keyamo Chambers, the plaintiff is seeking a declaration that she is entitled to the Certificate of Occupancy of the land in respect of the property “covered by old file number OS804 and new file number OY10212 and an order or perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, servants, privies or howsoever called from alienating, trespassing or further trespassing on the said property.”
The nefarious activities of dubious land speculators formed part of the justifications advanced by the FCT Minister, Senator Adamu Aliero for the recent astronomical increase of the various land fees in the territory. In the new fee regime, a prospective land owner is expected to pay a new flat fee of N100,000 for the processing application for both residential and commercial properties as against the hitherto applicable fee of N50,000 for residential (individual) and N20,000 for commercial (group). Aliero also increased by 100 percent the premium. The new fee is applicable to all categories of land in the Federal Capital Territory and the suburbs with immediate effect.
Under the new dispensation, ground rate on land per hectare has also been increased by more than 100 percent as the various areas of settlements have been categorised according to the level of infrastructural availability and provision. For instance, Maitama, Asokoro and Wuse II make up Category A, and because they are well serviced with basic facilities such as water, roads, electricity, health and educational amenities, their ground rate has been increased from N25 to N40 (60 percent) per square metre. Category B, made up of Garki 1 and 2, Wuse, Jabi, Guzape and Utako (also fully serviced with infrastructure) will pay the same amount as Category A. Category C includes Katampe, Katampe Extension, Jabi, Gwarinpa, Gudu, Mabushi, Wuye and Durumi, which have been partially serviced and will now have to pay N30 instead of the old rate of N20. Areas without social services such as Karshi will have to pay between N10 and N15 instead of the previous N2 charged. For premium charges, while Category A will have to pay N18,000 in place of the old rate of N2,000, all lands in the Central Business District will attract N20,000. For Category B, the new fee is N15,000 in place of the previous N2,000, N12,000 instead of N2,000 for partially serviced areas and N10,000 instead of N2,000 for unserviced areas.
The Minister’s aides argued that the increases, which were said to be at the instance of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, would help curb the excesses of the bevy of land speculators in the FCT who daily feed fat on innocent and unsuspecting buyers. But would they?
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