The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has returned four recovered title documents to victims of an elaborate land fraud scheme in Abuja.
A statement by the spokesman of the agency, Dele Oyewale, said the commission’s investigators acted on intelligence that enabled them to dismantle the syndicate and retrieve the forged documents.
Oyewale listed the recovered titles as follows: Plot 895, Kaura District (worth N150 million), returned to Mr. Asinobi Emmanuel Ogbuefi; Plot 714, Jahi District (worth N400 million), returned to the family of the late Ambassador Joseph D. Daze; Plot 625, Guzape District (worth N200 million), returned to Mr. Nuhu Umar; and Plot 1167, Katampe Extension (worth N250 million), returned to Mr. Omar Ali Bintawa.
The EFCC Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, revealed that the syndicate forged signatures, identification documents, and passports of original land allottees to declare title documents missing and reissue them fraudulently.
He said, “This syndicate is in the habit of forging signatures of original allottees of land. Not only do they forge their signatures, they forge their means of identification and passports of the original allottees and go ahead and declare the original title documents of those lands missing. The moment they are declared missing, they, on their own, would reapply, forge the signature and identity of the original allottee, and get another title document from it.”.
Olukoyede assured that all land fraudsters in Abuja would be brought to book.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Nuhu Umar expressed gratitude to the EFCC, stating, “We never thought this day would come. EFCC’s efforts have restored our hope and rightful ownership.”