THE police have unearthed a massive fraud allegedly being perpetrated by officials of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on Sale of Government Properties.
They reportedly utilise phony companies to defraud members of the public interested in buying any Federal Government property being offered for sale.
A team of investigators at the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos made the discovery while investigating a petition by a company, Multiplication Global Trade Limited.
The investigators, in a report, a copy of which The Nation sighted yesterday, revealed how some officials of the PIC, working with some cronies outside the committee, defraud tenants by denying them the right to buy such houses, contrary to the government’s laid down procedure for selling the property. They then offer the houses for sale to members of the public at inflated prices.
They said the method was recently deployed in relation to the sale of the property identified as No 6, Ruxton Street and No 3, Rumens Road (both in Ikoyi), Lagos.
The investigators stated that their “discreet investigations reveal that there actually exists a cabal within the PIC, whose modus operandi” is described below:
“As soon as sitting tenants of any government property expresses interest to buy their flats in accordance with government policy and the PIC has profiled such tenants and found them qualified, the information about such property is immediately passed to members of this cabal, who would approach the tenants and make offers to buy the property off their interests at very ridiculous rates, usually between N10 million and N12 million maximum per flat, with subtle threats and intimidation that either they accept or they shall be disqualified.
“The tenants are usually informed that they must all make payments for their respective flats together as one. Having succeeded in putting sufficient fear in the tenants, they are now compelled (the tenants) to give a joint letter of authority to the supposed buyer to deal exclusively on their behalf with the PIC and pay on their behalf the offer price. Sometimes, the tenants are paid even before the offer letter is issued.”
“This modus (operandi) was recently deployed to intimidate the present occupants of No 6, Ruxton Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and in the process several high ranking police officers have been maligned as having interest in the property,” the investigators said.
They added that, on further investigation, they found that any member of the cabal being used for any property, without paying a dime to government purse, was allowed to source for buyers using the offer letter of the PIC and because the properties were usually in choices areas, buyers were easy to find.
They added that when a buyer is found for a price that usually doubles the government offer price, usually ranging between N650 million to as much as N900 million for Ikoyi property, such a buyer is then instructed to raise drafts in the name of PIC on behalf of each tenant for the value of the offer price while the balance goes to the member of the cabal that has been assigned that property to handle and consequently shared.
“This was the exact modus that has been deployed in respect of No 3, Rumens Road, Ikoyi, Lagos where the instructions for the distribution of the N670 million was handed to the petitioner,” the police investigators said.
They recommended further investigation, particularly compelling some identified officials of the PIC found to have engaged in corrupt practices and abuse of office to provide needed information.
NATION
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