No fewer than 200 house seekers have been defrauded by one Tunde Nojeemdeen, who is reportedly a house developer in Lagos State.
Nojeemdeen allegedly deceived the house seekers, who had paid various sums of money for an accommodation on 22, Anuoluwapo Street, in the Ejigbo area of the state.
It was said that the agent connived with the landlady of the one-storey building, simply identified as Kudirat to perpetrate the fraud.
Kudirat was alleged to have directed the prospective tenants to Nojeemdeen for payments after they enquired about the building.
However, the house seekers became disappointed when they discovered that only 14 flats are available in the building.
One of the victims, Oluwakemi Sodiq, said the prospective tenants paid sums ranging from N300,000 to N500,000.
She said, “On September 24, I was at my brother’s wedding when they told me that there was commotion at the house. On getting here, many had been injured; the police even came and arrested some people. All we want is justice; we need our money back. We can no longer hold the pain. As I speak to you, the wife of one of us just gave birth but he has nowhere to put both mother and child. They are currently staying at their pastor’s house. This is our reality. We are homeless.
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She said, “When we made the report, Nojeemdeen was arrested. We later went to the SCID, but the IPO told us to pay N50,000 each to write our statements. We refused to pay the money and went to a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole; he pitied us and took us to the Assistant Commissioner of Police at the SCID, who instructed the officers not to collect money from us.
“The ACP told us that he was not aware of the matter. Till now, we have not heard anything; all the agents working for the developer are nowhere to be found and have all switched off their phones.”
Another victim, who identified himself as Prophet E. Sunday, stated that they later found out that Nojeemdeen had defrauded many others in the past.
He alleged that the SCID was covering up for him.
The cleric said, “When we found out we had been defrauded, I called the developer but I could not reach him. I came to the building and found out that a fight had broken out between the tenants. I eventually made enquiries and discovered that this has become a business for the developer; he is fond of defrauding people. He has another house on this same street that he is developing; the people there are also complaining of being defrauded.
“I got to know that when something like this happens, he’ll just rush to the SCID and pay off the police and that is how the case will die down. This is a profession for him and the police keep covering up for him. In fact, for this case, he wasn’t arrested; he surrendered himself to the police because he knows that once he gets to the station, all he has to do is pay the officers.