By Maduka Nweke
After falling victim to scammers in his own premises, a property owner has warned those seeking to buy lands or house and those for rents to be very watchful not to fall into the hands of fraudulent speculators.
One of such owners, Mrs. Anthonia Animashaun, who lost her two-bed room flats to agents in Ijeshatedo, Lagos to an agent assigned to help her market the flat, she said her problem with the agent started when she relinquished control over the building because of blanket trust she had for the agent. “I was thinking that all the sign this, sign that the agent was telling me was to cede my flat out of my control. I started smelling rat when my friend asked me of the flat and that she would like to rent it. I called this agent Mr. Kabiru Bankole, several times for meetings but each time he would give excuses.
“When I decided to eject the tenant, the tenant told me, he doesn’t know me and that I should lease with the owner. I tried to recover my property and we landed in the Court. I am in a court with the agent I engaged to help me handle my property. So you should always be careful in the your free wheel with your confidant,”she said.
Recently, a property agent was arraigned for allegedly defrauding a client of N400,000 house rent. The prosecution counsel told the court that the defendant was arrested, and during the police investigation, he confessed to having converted the money to his personal use.
A 32-year-old property agent, Kabir Yamusa, has been arraigned before a Kado Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, for allegedly defrauding his client of N400,000 house rent.
The Police charged Yamusa, of no fixed address, for criminal breach of trust and cheating. The prosecution counsel, Stanley Nwafoaku, told the court that on March 3 at about 3:47 pm, the complainant, Dajuma Lawal of Wuse market, Abuja, reported the matter at divisional police headquarters Wuse Zone 3, Abuja.
Nwafoaku alleged that sometime in January, the complainant contacted the defendant, a property agent, to secure a one-room apartment for him at Jabi. He alleged that the complainant paid N400,000 into the defendant’s account, and immediately after Yamusa received the money, he absconded without providing the house as promised.