This year, the annual African International Housing Show in Abuja is in its 18th edition. Stakeholders in the construction industry, which include all types of building materials merchants, both public and private housing finance providers, land and infrastructure development agencies and companies, and all other relevant companies related and unrelated to the housing sector but essential to all human activities, are attending to showcase their products to attract patronage.
However, the most ubiquitous products on display, in line with the name of the gathering, are different housing types being displayed for sale or off-take by almost both public and private sector housing providers, not only in Nigeria but from other African countries and beyond.
The central focus of the annual show is the elimination or reduction of the heavy housing deficits prevalent in all cities globally. The strategic approach is the delivery of affordable housing to alleviate the housing challenges of the ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, due to attitudinal decay in some criminally minded individuals, many genuine housing providers would fall victim to the antics of fraudsters while acquiring land. Also, the same ordinary citizens that require assistance would be deceived by fraudulent housing providers. The tendency is that, they could lose their entire lifetime investment, which is meant for owning their dream houses, if they are not well guided.
It is important for all developers to note that, there must be land allocation accompanied with building plan approvals, not only in Abuja but in all cities, before one should commence any property development, at least for the purpose of sanity and orderliness. Since the amount of money involved is very large, people must comply with the rules and regulations to guard against unnecessary loss to demolitions in the event of any form of illegality.
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The Federal Capital City is a haven for anyone who wants to invest in property development at any time, but one must always go to sleep with both eyes open in order to be protected against the various mischievous elements within the corridors of property administration and business in Abuja. Even so, dealing in properties is a very dicey business today in the city. A single step in the wrong direction could lead to the loss of very heavy fortune, amounting to hundreds of millions of naira, sometimes billions. Many at times, transactions in properties could appear very clean even after a proper search from the relevant government departments and the subsequent proper obtainment of building plan approval.
A document could correctly bear the name of the original owner, correct plot numbering and purpose of use. It could also be confirmed from the AGIS upon the launching of a search. However, that never resolves matters. An unsuspecting and innocent property investor would not know he was duped despite all scrutiny until he commences development of site. That will be when the genuine plot owner would appear and prove nonsense of all the scrutiny and the due processes employed. The purported original title document, which is the basis of the transaction, would actually be proved to be a forged, or cloned document.
What really happened was that an exact replica of the Certificate of Occupancy would be reproduced without changing the name and any of the information. The purpose of a search is for the verification of the information presented on the document, in other words to ascertain the true ownership. Hence, whenever the unsuspecting buyer conducts a search, no foul play would be discovered, since he was shown the original title document, which bears the name of the owner and tallies with the official record.
This type of fraud wouldn’t be possible without the connivance of the agency’s unscrupulous staff who are the custodians of the official records. A lot of efforts to curb this type of crime were made in the past, including the introduction of more security measures in printing the title documents, but as it appears, more needs to be done. Because, a vault would not be secure with the burglar inside.
Since the usual procedure before commencement of land transaction is that the buyer would conduct site visit, our advice to the property owners is to place a caveat with their names and addresses of where they could be contacted in case of any inquiry. Despite that, it is advised that property owners should frequently visit their sites to prevent the vultures and scavengers from altering the information on the site or placing their sign posts to divert their victims to them instead of the genuine owner.
To be continued
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