Mr Abdul Usman (not real name) is a retiree who gathered years of his savings and his gratuity to get a house in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He gets in touch with one of the reputed estate developers who assures him his house would be ready in one year. Excited by the prospect of getting his own house and emboldened by the antecedents of the developer, he expeditiously meets up with the financial obligations of the contract running into millions of naira and joyously waits to be handed the key of his very own house in a year.
Three years down the line he does not get the house and does not get his money back. In fact life has become a nightmare because despite the disappointment of not getting the house he was eagerly looking forward to, now he has no money as he virtually sank all everything into the project. The situation leads to health complications for Mr Usman, who does not even have the funds to get proper health-care and has to resort to seeking financial assistance for his upkeep.
Meanwhile, the estate developer keep making evasive promises and it seems apparent, he may have been swindled of his hard earned money. Various interventions by the senior citizen to get his house or money back prove futile as he sinks deeper into despair with each passing day.
Mr Usman’s story represents the story of thousands of other subscribers of estate developers in the FCT, many who even collected loans from banks to secure their own houses. With banks breathing down their necks and the accompanying hardship of tying down so much money in a project that may not come to fruition, life has become a living hell to these people.
In response to this situation, the House of Representatives constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged corrupt activities of real estate developers within the FCT in July last year.
The House passed a resolution mandating the committee to carry out the investigation due to numerous complaints from Nigerians who felt short-changed and unfairly treated and as well as other allegations of unethical practices by the developers.
In a motion by Hon. Boma Goodhead from Rivers State at the plenary, the House said that complaints of misrepresentation, deceit, fraud, non-delivery to subscribers, incessant breach of contracts with zero consequences, impunity,unethical/illegal clauses that offer no protection for the client’s investment,money laundering, poor quality houses among others have continued to dominate the real estate sector.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila had named Hon. Blessing Onuh as the chairman of the committee.
The committee was also saddled with the responsibility of creating a forum for members of the public to lodge complaints against such fraudulent developers and also investigate developers suspected of violating applicable laws and liaise with enforcement agencies with a view to prosecuting them.
The committee was mandated to work with relevant stakeholders and MDAs towards formulating a law, issuing guidelines or other appropriate legislation/regulations for the sector to enhance monitoring, regulation, and ensure the protection of investors of subscribers from illegal transactions and eliminate unethical real estate practices in the FCT.
The committee was to liaise with relevant MDAs to revisit the issue of compiling a database on property transactions and newly approved developments while also ensuring that the developers were duly licensed before engaging in the practice.
It was also to liaise with relevant anti-corruption agencies towards plugging financial crime in the sector.
On February 3, the committee embarked on oversight to inspect project sites by developers in the FCT, and its chairman, Onuh, had described the findings as “mind-boggling.”
She had berated real estate developers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja for violations of processes and regulations governing the development in the nation’s capital.
The House lashed at the developers for various infractions including failure to deliver to their subscribers and building without relevant authorization among other issues.
In some of the places visited, the developers could not provide documents to authorize the jobs they were doing.
Some of the developers whose sites were visited are BILAAD, Brains and Hammers, KYC, EFAB, Earth Point Modern Shelter, Betell Villa Estate and Dolliz Brown Estate among others.
Onuh, who was in the company of officials of the FCT, had assured that the committee would analyze the various infractions by the developers and deal with them appropriately.
She was outraged that most of the developers did not have authorisation and also that they were building indiscriminately outside the master-plan of the capital city.
Some developers were not included in the database of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) the committee had discovered.
She said for example in some places where schools are supposed to be built such developers had rather put up residential buildings here.
“We would look at the infractions, analyze them and then we would send those that have infractions and contraventions to the necessary authority for intervention,” she had said.
The committee will not hesitate
to recommend severe sanc
tions and prosecution of everyone involved in these sharp practices,” she said.
She said the committee would ensure the sector is sanitised and properly regulated to yield necessary dividends to all stakeholders.
On February 14, 2022, Onuh said the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) loses N800 billion annually in revenues accruable to it in the real estate sector, due to poor regulation, according to the committee’s preliminary findings.
She disclosed this at the open
ing of a two-day workshop on
the operations of real estate developers in the FCT in Abuja, which was part of activities aimed at carrying out the mandate of the committee.
Onuh said: “Take for example, a house or land is sold for N500 million, the lawyer gets his legal fees, the agent gets his brokerage fee, the bank gets its transaction charges and the government gets nothing if the transaction is not presented for registration. And this kind of transactions go on in volumes everyday unregulated, leaving the government with the perennial struggles of meeting up its responsibility of providing a decent welfare for its staff and providing modern amenities to its people. Many of these transactions are done in cash making the industry a safe haven for money laundering and illicit financial flows.”
She said the committee also hopes to discuss the consumer protection laws as it relates to the real estate industry.
Onuh said: “This is necessitated from the hundreds of petitions submitted to this committee by teeming members of the public who have been shortchanged by dubious developers operating freely in the industry. A pathetic case is the case of the petroleum and natural gas senior staff association of Nigeria which paid over N4.2 billion to a developer since 2019 and is yet to get even one house delivered to its staff. And thousands of similar cases.”
She said in the short time the committee had carried out its mandate, it found out that the level of impunity by developers across the sector is unprecedented.
She said this is obviously not possible without the collaboration of corrupt public officers.
“The committee in different oversight inspections noted with great concern many estates at different levels of completion, some 100 percent completed and occupied but developed without building approvals or without proper titles. We noticed some estates developed on green areas and lands reserved for public institutions like schools. Some developers invade plots without documents demarcate and sell to unsuspecting members of the public and display a high sense of impunity emboldened by the belief that they are friends of the authority and nothing can happen to them,” Onuh said.
She assured the committee would stop at nothing to check the nefarious activities of estate developers in the FCT and the country.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Ahmed Wase, lauded the committee for its effort, saying corruption is a monster that must be tackled to address unwholesome practices by real estate developers.
He charged the committee not
to compromise on its man
date and do its best to ensure that no Nigerian is taken for granted or short-changed in the shortest possible time.
Wase also urged developers who are involved in such unwholesome practices to desist.
“Developers should stop this. People would go to the bank, take loans and at the end of the day, nothing to show. I think it is not right. We should be guided by our conscience those who are doing that. I charge all those involved to have a change of heart and do the right thing,” Wase said.
Minister of the FCT Mohammed Bello said access to decent accommodation is considered a fundamental human right and the government is committed to this.
He said the FCT introduced a mass housing scheme to be driven by the private sector after it became apparent that government alone could not possibly meet the needs of the citizenry.
Bello said while this policy enabled many to own decent accommodation, it also came with its own challenges.
He however said private sector involvement is the best way to provide housing for the people.
“I still want to reiterate that the way to is through the private sector involvement in partnership with the public sector under strong regulation. I believe working together with the committee and recommendations you are going to proffer, it is still not too late to recover lost ground. We have no option but to work together under the right laws and regulations.
“Despite all this, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is still the most viable option available to us in meeting housing needs, but under strict regulations that would protect the estate investor, government and off-takers as well as those financing the projects along the entire value chain,” he said.
Meanwhile the development has led to panic in the FCT as many house owners do not know what their fate would be when the committee completes its assignment and submits its report to the House.
Even those who have been living in their houses for years are worried as it has become apparent that the estate developers they bought their homes from may have done so illegally and they do not know the extent of sanctions the committee would recommend which it is feared may be so stiff that many may lose their homes.
A house owner in one of the estates, Ismail Adamu, is one of those who expressed such fears.
“I was in my house when I heard some commotion outside and when I came out I learnt some members of the National Assembly were coming to check the illegal work carried out by the developer of my estate. I just learnt the house I am living in is an illegal structure and I have been living here for years. If this house is taken from me then it means homelessness for me and my family. Please I personally did everything legally and the developer is a reputable one with estates scattered all over Abuja. I hope there would be a way we would be compensated or seek any other form of redress if we lose our homes, because we did not commit any crime,” he said.
As the apprehension grows, so also those hope for many who look forward to actualization of the mandate of the committee to sanitize the sector.
Investigations revealed that some of the real estate developers have begun various moves to put pressure on the committee to back down on its assignment, but Onuh stressed the committee must see its job through.
Deputy Speaker Wase, who expressed confidence in the committee, stressed that it must not compromise for any reason.
“Our prayer is that you should turn in a report that would stand the test of time. Turn in a report that would be used to serve as a deterrent for those who are erring. Please recover every kobo due to the Nigerian government. We are expecting recommendations that would be devoid of sentiment, with the fear of God. Whoever you find wanting, please do not spare. No under the table, no behind the door discussions,” Wase emphasized.