Wonder
they say shall never cease as Lagos Landlord connived with developer to defraud
220 Nigerian of over 50 Million Naira house rent. Information reaching us from
the grapevine has it that, the landlord whose real name is Ganiu Davies but
popularly known as Gabovis has two land around Ojodu axis that he gave to
developer to develop for him and also use it to rent so as to be able to recoup
their money. We were told that the house is 27 room apartments but out of
greediness the developer, we learnt rented it out to more than 220 people.
According to one of the victims, Olaniyi Olaniran who is a staff of Globacom
Communication, he said “I was introduced by an agent that he has an apartment
in No 13 Bashiru Street Ojodu beside GTBank, Lagos. And I went to inspect the
apartment. It was 27 rooms flat and I paid for two bedrooms flat. The total
fund I paid was five hundred and forty thousand naira (540,000) some other pay
1million naira and the total money paid to them is over 50million naira after
calculation. I was asked to come and collect the key to my apartment on a
particular date, only for me to get there, I discover that other people have
been given the same keys. So, we are over two hundred and twenty that was given
just 27 keys. And it is a sad one because some of us have been homeless. Some
of us stay in church, sleep in the office. Immediately we realized there is
foul play, we try to reach the developer but they are nowhere to be found. And
we reported the case to the police, Ojodu Police Station to be precisely but we
find out that there is a foul play between the owner of the property and the
police. The same thing happened when we got to Area F Police Station. In this
case, we don’t trust the police, so we want the government to come to our
rescue. I’ve paid them money since august last year and I was to move in last
year November. The name of the owner is Ganiu Davies but popularly known as
Gabovis, we met with him and he promised to give us back our money but he want
the court to terminate the agreement he had with the developer first. Up till
now, nothing is happening. Also speaking
on the issue was Mr. Benedict Onoha who is also a staff of MTN Nigeria, he said
“I got to know about the apartment through a friend of mine who stay in the
same street. But unfortunately, he was staying in smaller apartment and he
decided to move into a bigger apartment at 18 Jide Taiwo Street Ojodu, Lagos.
And as you can see, the same developer who perpetrated this illicit act at 13
Bashiru did the same thing at 18 Jide Taiwo Street Ojodu. There at Jide Taiwo,
the list we have collected so far is 29 in number and it is amounted
8,120,000(eight million one hundred and twenty thousand) this man collected
different amount of money from different people. I’ve paid 400,000. The receipt
he issue to me is bearing Alhaji Abiodun Venture with fake address while he
gave other people Strong Homes receipt with different false address. We got to
know that it was the same developer because we pay to them in person and we all
paid to the same person but they gave us different receipt. In fact, some paid
directly to the landlord but he asked them to meet the developer for their
receipt which they did. The initial 200,000 naira that I paid was paid cash
which they issue me receipt, so when the melting pressure that I have balance
up my money before I can pack in, I insisted that I won’t pay the total money
until I get the key to the apartment. So, he try to convinced me on why I
should paid the money that they actually need the money because they don’t have
sufficient fund again to complete the building. After that, I paid another
100,000 naira twice into their IBTC account number making 400,000 naira. And
behold, this man operates with different accounts, he has account with IBTC,
First Bank, Diamond account and all these account has different names. So, we
are asking the media because we know your job is to inform and correct norms
within the society. We want you to help us tell the world about this scam and
help us to draw this issue to the attention of the government. We need the
intervention of the government because as it stands now it looks as if we have
lose hope with the police because they are not helping us on this issue. With
what they have done so far, the IPO who is in the criminal investigating
department as of last week told us that, one of the accomplice has been charge
to court and the court will sit on the 10th of May 2013. We asked
him, who and who accompany you to the court? At least, he defrauded, so people
should follow him to the court to testify against him and that is why we are
crying asking the government and media to assist us in exposing all these
criminals.” Buttressing their point is Miss Blessing Nwaze, a final year
student of the University of Lagos from the department of Business Admin saying
“This issue has been going for a while now and we’ve reported so many
authorized offices. Some legal places we know that can help us recoup our money
but nothing has been done so far. Obviously, from the perspective where I’m
seeing things from, this man known as Gabovis (Bolaji Davis) has his way around
Lagos. Most of the times, before we go to most of these offices, we discovered
that they give us little or no attention which means someone must have pay them
to keep mute which we cannot pay. Even when we contributed 200,000 to pay one
lawyer, Bar. Ubani, I heard he’s human right activist. To my surprise, he
returned our money few days after we paid him the money saying that he can no
longer fight the case for us. And this is someone who called himself a human
right activist who is supposed to be fighting for the masses. Fine! We knew he
used to be one of Baba’s lawyers but that does not mean he should not protect
the interest of the masses. Now, Baba (Gabovis) in conjunction with the
developers have connive together to dupe us. Now, Ubani has refused to fight
for us, maybe Baba has paid him off, he gave us back our money and we collected
it in good faith and we are praying to God that the government we be able to do
something to so that justice will prevail. I paid 230,000 naira for a room self
contain and that money was just for one year. I paid on the 11th of
February 2013 and I was asked to move in on the 28th of the same
month. On getting there, I saw crowd in front of the house as if they are
having military training.” She concluded
Meanwhile,
after all said and done we learnt Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has
directed them to Inspector general of Police to handle the case with immediate
effect.
life is like a box of chocolate, You never know what your going to get in them. By: Forest Gum
Titilola
Osinowo is one of the beautiful ladies in the Nigerian movie industry.
The English Language student of Tai Solarin University of
Education(TASUED), Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, in this interview with TAYO
GESINDE, speaks on her love for acting, fashion preferences and how she
has been combining the home front with her acting career. Excerpts:
