•Lagos alerts public to fake agents’ activities
Lagos State Housing Commissioner Bosun Jeje and his Justice counterpart Ade Ipaye have warned residents of a website purportedly asking those interested in the Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (HOMS) to pick up forms after paying into a private account. The scheme, they say, is a scam designed to fleece the public, reports SEYI ODEWALE.
It is a housing scheme many wish to subscribe to in Lagos. Known as the Lagos Homes Ownership Mortgage Scheme (HOMS), would-be subscribers are falling over themselves to benefit from it. Aware of this, some self-styled agents have stepped in to dupe people. The government, in a swift move, may have pulled the carpet off their feet. The Commissioner for Housing, Bosun Jeje and his Justice counterpart Ade Ipaye, through the media warned the public to be wary of the activities of fraudsters claiming to be agents in-charge of selling allocation forms for the houses built under the HOMS.
“The said information, invitation and demands did not emanate from the Lagos State Government, and any person or persons making such demands should immediately be reported to the nearest police station or law enforcement agency,” they said.
The statement added: “The Lagos State Government, in pursuit of its people oriented programmes and projects, is assiduously developing housing units and a sustainable mortgage scheme under the Lagos HOMS Programme. But it is yet to finalise and put into public domain the modalities for accessing the units.”
The Commissioners’ ‘war’ against the cyber fraudsters may have paid off. Oluyemisi, a middle age woman, who declined to give her last name, was beside herself with joy. She said she could have fallen for it. Her target was the Sogunro scheme, Ogba, a Lagos suburb, via Ikeja, which is 85 per cent completed. She has lived a better part of her adult life in the area and knows, substantially, different stages of development that had taken place there, especially in the last 20 years.
And when the state government commenced the Sogunro scheme, by constructing 240 blocks of houses, comprising self-contained, two-bedroom and three-bedroom flats, in both its first and second schemes of 144 and 96 blocks, under the HOM scheme, she was one of those that expressed delight at embracing the scheme.
Oluyemisi said when she read the story warning people against the purported website, her initial fear of a situation like that happening and the cynicisms expressed by those she mentioned her desire for the scheme to, came flooding her memory.
“I heard stories of what may likely happen to the houses when completed by those I mentioned my desire to. In fact, they said government may have deliberately put on hold the sale of the forms for the houses because it wants to protect the interests of party faithfuls and loyalists. And when situation like this happens, frustrations and desperations on the part of the people interested in the project may lead some unscrupulous people to do what has just been reported by the commissioners,” she said.
She probably could not have been the only one saved from falling into the hands of those behind the purported site. “The announcement was timely. So many people desirous of the scheme would have visited the site and made the move to get the forms. Of course, anybody who is interested in the scheme and sees such an advert would take steps in fighting for an allocation. And when information does not go round one may fall into that kind of trap,” she said.
Tunde Ojediran was not interested in the scheme, the experience he had in a similar scheme some years back made him to conclude that when people are in the dark about some government’s projects avenues are created for fraudsters to exploit them, especially prospective house owners.
“A few years’ back, during the first term of Governor Fashola, I tried to help my sister-in-law, who stays abroad to subscribe to a similar housing scheme. The experience then was not good enough. After about a year of depositing the said percentage, I got almost frustrated that nothing was forthcoming. And nobody was telling us anything. The worse part of it was that I did not want my in-law to think I had swindled her. So, I had to look for ways of retrieving the money, which I later used to buy a plot of land in Ikorodu and build for her,” he said.
“It was not that I did not believe in the scheme, what happened was that my in-law’s patient waned. This is because what she expected was an immediate delivery, but when delay set in, she got agitated, having been told different stories of people at home swindling their relatives abroad all in the name of helping them to build houses. So, I felt uneasy until I got the money back,” he said.
The Commissioners’ action may have nipped in the bud activities of the fraudsters, who are trying to fleece unsuspecting Lagosians of their hard-earned money. The delay in allocating the already built units may push people to fall into the trap. But Bosun Jeje, the Housing Commissioner said, was deliberately planned to be different.
“We have not started the allocation under Lagos HOMS, but we will start very soon. I am sure that in this last quarter of 2013, we will start by God’s grace. We have not allocated the ones completed because we want to have enough stock and we want to put processes in place that will make construction to be sustainable. We do not want a situation where we will just build, allocate and then stop. We have to put processes in place that will make the scheme a sustainable one,” Jeje told The Nation.
He said Lagos HOMS came as a result of government trying to fulfill its campaign promises. “It came about as a result of government fulfilling its responsibility to its citizens. One of our campaign promises is to address the issue of housing if voted into power, and Lagos being a megacity has housing challenges, which is a common feature of all megacities in the world. More so, the state is a coastal state. We have challenges of land; we don’t have the luxury of land like other states. So, we have a duty of fulfilling one of our electoral promises and address the deficit in housing provision. That informed the Lagos HOMS,” he added.
Three other agencies, it was gathered, were also given the task of making the state’s dream on housing a reality. They are the Lagos State Development Property Corporation (LSDPC), the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) and the state’s Housing Ministry. Each was assigned different locations within the state to build the houses.
The alleged fraudulent practice, Jeje said, did not come as a result of any delay in the allocation of the houses. “It is a criminal act and you don’t need a special law to try the culprits when they are caught. When they are caught, the law will deal with them. We want every citizen not to fall into their trap. If somebody is giving you a personal account to pay for a state housing scheme, then you must be wary and ask yourself that why paying into a personal account?” he cautioned.
About the website in question www.nigeriapropertycentre.com/blog/buying.selling/, Jeje said:”I cannot come out now to tell you what we are doing. What happened is a security issue. Whatever we are going to do is a security issue. So, we cannot tell you what we are doing, but they will be caught, I can assure you of that.”
He confirmed the impression people have about the scheme. “The general impression of the people towards government is that when houses are built, they are allocated to their friends or cronies, but we are saying that these ones are built for Lagosians, and everybody will have equal opportunity of owning a house,” he said, adding that the allocation would be transparent.
“It is going to be transparent in the sense that it will be through ballot system, and we have a specific amount that we are giving out every month, so that sustainability that I have said can be there. We are starting with the ballot system whereby you can download your form on the internet, fill it and submit, and in the glare of the public, the ballots would be picked and winners would emerge,” he explained.
However, the prices might not be that cheap. “If you want to make the houses sustainable, you have to look at the cost of construction. Even though we have subsidy that we have put into the pricing, we should know that there is no affordable cement from where we bought, no affordable blocks and no affordable land, but in pricing, we will look at several factors and that is why we will come up with a mortgage arrangement like is done in all advanced countries,” he said.
“So, when you have a mortgage option, you can pay a meagre amount every month. The process of payment will be easy for everybody and it is spread for a minimum of 10 years. With that, everyone will see that our definition of affordability is more real than what people call it,” he said.
A total of 250 blocks, consisting of 2,720 housing units of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom flats are presently under construction in 13 different locations in the state.
To be eligible for the scheme, applicants must reside in Lagos State; be under 60 years; have a verifiable means of income; should be credit worthy; expected to pay 30 per cent of the value of the house they intend to purchase. Houses purchased under the scheme must be occupied by the beneficiary and cannot be transferred or rented out until all obligations are fulfilled. Other conditions to be met, include that beneficiaries are to pay six per cent interest rate on the mortgage loan; applicants must have been working for his/her current employer for at least six months (and must be confirmed by employer) and must be first time home buyers.
“The good news about it is that we will start allocation very soon. I am sure that in the last quarter of 2013, we will start. But we have not started and have not asked anyone to do it for us,” the Commissioner, said.
The website allegedly used by the fraudsters is powered by Dilmak Solutions Ventures Limited, 533 Ikwerre Road, Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. It is registered in Nigeria with registration certificate no 1114378. “Nigeria Property Centre is the clear leading property website with lots of users, advertising members and properties. Our advertisers are property professionals such as estate agents, letting (rental) agents and new homes developers who offer properties within Nigeria for property hunters. nigeriapropertycentre.com is operated by Dilmak Solutions Ventures Limited, a privately held company in Nigeria,” the site revealed.
This is a country full of speculations, even when the government has good intensions, sceptics will always have negative opinions. I will request that whoever has the form should do us a favour and come and give us a copy of it, and also tell us how much and where it was purchased, he said.
