Duped Ketu Tenants Fight Back

•Duped tenants mill in front of the apartment building in Ketu this morning. PHOTO…. Simon Ateba

•Duped tenants mill in front of the apartment building in Ketu this morning. PHOTO: Simon Ateba

Angry tenants who were duped by a developer of a Ketu house in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, fought back by pulling down the gate to the building and removing part of the roof on Monday.

They unleashed their anger on the property after they realised that the landlord, the developer and the agents were still on the run.

The Lagos State Police Command did not know how to track down the fleeing suspects as at Tuesday.

Other parts of the building were also being damaged when the police came and shot in the air to disperse the crowd.

“It happened around 7 pm. Police came and they were shooting. People were running everywhere,” said an eyewitness.

Over a hundred tenants who were expecting to be given keys to their new apartments on Monday stormed Ketu  after they realised they had been duped by the property’s developer.

The prospective tenants had paid hundreds of thousands of naira each for 13 mini-apartments and were asked to come for their keys on Monday at the newly built house located at 59, Oriola Street, Alapere-Ketu.

However, on Sunday night, rumour began to circulate that some tenants had been given keys and were already occupying all the apartments.

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Those who arrived Monday had to confront those already occupying the apartments, claiming they had also paid for the same flats.

Those who were duped included a 69-year old woman, Mrs. Mariam Eboigbe, a couple that will be getting married on 4 August and had planned to move into the new house straight from the wedding.

Many duped tenants continued to storm the building on Tuesday to demand a refund but there was no one to attend to them.

Augustine Nwosu and his young wife, Isioma had paid N310,000 for a two-bedroom flat.

“We paid N310,000 and now we don’t know what to do. People can be heartless. The government should take over the house and sell it and refund everybody’s money,” Augustine said.

Tenants who showed up yesterday had paid an aggregate sum of about N6 million.

—Simon Ateba

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