Over 150 Ikorodu residents seeking accommodation at Surulere and Coker areas of Lagos State have been allegedly defrauded by a property developer identified as Kabiru Adeyemi , The Nation reports
The residents, claimed that the total amount paid the said Adeyemi amounted to about N50million, also said they resorted to leaving Ikorodu following the spate of kidnappings and killings by the now infamous Badoo cult group.
Further investigations revealed that the victims, comprising about 100 families, had paid the developer for alternative accommodations at Iponri, Aguda, Coker and Orile.
Most of the victims including widows, it was gathered, were squatting with relatives in Lagos after abandoning their homes at Ikorodu.
Adeyemi alledgedly charged some of the victims N240,000 per year for a room and parlour apartment, but when they went to take possession of their respective apartments, they discovered people were already in them.
Exasperated by the development, some of the victims were said to have filed a complaint at the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Alagbon, which led to Adeyemi's arrest.
The victim's were said to have protested to the International Centre for Human Rights, Non Violence and Safety (ICHR) office, Alaka Estate, Iponri, lamenting that they were stranded.
A victim, Linus Ejiofor said he fled Ikorodu in May and has been squatting with a relative.
He said he paid N200,000 for a self-contained and promised to balance N150,000 when he got the key, but another person had occupied.
Ejiofor also lamented that he introduced a lot of people from Ikorodu to the developer, not knowing it was a scam.
Narrating her ordeal, one Mrs. Johnson said:
"I fled my house in Ikorodu following incessant attacks from Badoo. I contacted an agent to help me get a place and he took me to a house undergoing renovation at Mashalasi Street, Iponri. I saw a woman, Mrs Fumilayo and a man called JJ.
"Mrs. Fumilayo told me that she and her husband were the developers renovating the house. My agent and I inquired about a mini flat and she said it was N250 for one year. She told me to make payment into her bank account which I did. I brought the teller to her and was issued a receipt.
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