A 67-year-old widow and mother of six, Alhaja Amdalat Tijani, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to sell her house without her knowledge.
Tijani said a lawyer, identified simply as Fashugba and an agent, identified simply as Olalekan, had put up her residence on Idimu Road, Egbeda, Lagos State, for sale.
She said she was lucky to learn about it from one of her children before the duo could carry out their plan.
She said, “Early last week, someone called one of my children and said an agent informed him that our house was for sale, and he felt he should confirm from us first.
“The child came to inform me. Of course the information was not true. I have no reason to want to sell the house. We decided to get the contact of those planning to sell the house. That was how we got in touch with Olalelekan, who is the agent in charge of the sale.
“My child called Olalekan in my presence without letting him know we own the house. Olalekan confirmed that the house had been put up for sale by the owner. I was alarmed because I am the owner and I have not put the house for sale.”
Tijani said her son decided to play along with the agent and therefore told him that he was interested in buying the house for his mother before travelling abroad. She added that her son told Olalekan that he needed documents of the house to be sure of its authenticity.
Olalekan reportedly asked the supposed buyer to inspect the property to know if they liked it.
She said when they called him later, her son assured Olalekan that he liked the property, which made the agent release the contact of the lawyer whom he said was actually in charge of the transaction.
“When I called Fashugba, he promised to give his address so that we can see him in his office. I told him I had seen the house and my son would pay for it,” she added.
She said the lawyer somehow got wind of the fact that she owned the house and began to ignore her calls, and later switched off his phone.
She also claimed that while the incident was on, she met an Alhaji who informed her that three different people had approached him to know if he was interested in buying the house.
As a preemptive measure, Tijani said she quickly posted a caveat emptor on the building before reporting the matter at the Idimu Police Station.
She said, “I don’t know who could be responsible for this, because I built this house with my late husband in 1972 when a bag of cement was only 11 Shillings.
“After he died in 1993, I trained my children alone. All my six children are comfortable, so none of them could have attempted such fraud against me.”
When PUNCH Metro contacted Olalekan, he said he was not an agent and had merely passed on the information he got from his boss, one Adegoke.
He said, “I am not an agent, I sell house paints and I am based in Sango, Ogun State. It was my boss, Mr. Adegoke, who told me that our lawyer informed him that a house was for sale. Those who called me, I referred them to lawyer Fashugba. I am not a bad person.”
Fashugba, who also spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said he learnt about the property from another agent based in Egbeda, one Samuel.
He said he did not take further action on the house because Samuel failed to present the house papers.
“I am a legal practitioner and a senior member of the bar. If anybody says a house is for sale, we ask for legal documents and then we wait for instructions. We didn’t get any of this, and that was why we kept telling everybody that had been calling on the property that we didn’t know if the house was for sale or not,” he said.
The Deputy Police Public Relation Officer for the state command, ASP Damasus Ozoani, said the police was investigating the alleged fraud.
Punch
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