Subscribers At War With Real Estate Coy Over Land Allocation

Scores of land subscribers to Mainland Park Estate, Mowe, Ogun State, Southwest, Nigeria, have called on the management of Pentagon Real Estate Investment Nigeria Limited, to allocate plots of land that they paid for without further delay.

The subscribers, under the aegis of Mainland Park Subscribers†Forum, said since they entered into agreement with the estate company in 2006 and some of them completing payment for land, neither fiscal allocation nor documents relating to the land have been given to them.

The groupâ€s representatives who spoke with Lagos Bulletin, also alleged that when the organisation, led by its managing director, Mr. Kenneth Okoruwa, wanted to market the land to them, the place shown to them was different from where they were taken to after some of them have completed payment. They also discovered that the place originally shown to them has been developed by the company.

Mr. Alabi Bamidele, the leader of the subscribers†forum said, apart from completing payment of N350,000 per plot which the land was sold, the real estate management was demanding for another money ranging from N200,000 to N1,000,000 as development levy, while it refused to release either the land or the documents to them until all monies have been paid.

The forum also alleged that efforts to meet the companyâ€s management on where the land is located and when it will be handed over to them were rescheduled several times and when such was eventually held, it did not yield the desired result.

They are therefore appealing to management of the organisation to allocate land to those that have completed payment with all necessary documents.

Reacting to the subscribers†allegation, Mr. Kenneth Okoruwa, the managing director, said the company, which was registered in 2007 with the vision of providing affordable land and houses to Nigerians, did not intend to hold any of the subscribers to ransom, adding that most of the land documents are ready but the subscribers did not come for them except a few of them.

On the issue of allocation, the managing director said there was no time any of the subscribers was shown any particular place and that where they were shown was part of the land acquired.

He said some of the buyers that now complain that they have not be allocated their land have never been to the site to know where the estate is situated.

Okoruwa said the development levy demanded by his organisation was to provide basic amenities such as electricity, grading of the road, provision of bore holes, supply of transformers and fencing the estate. This arrangement, according to him, has, however, been suspended following protests from the subscribers.

He called on those that have completed payment to come for the collection of all documents relating to the said land, which he said would commence by the end of October.

— Paul Sanusi