This morning i was just going through the some papers online and i stumbled upon this old article in the Vanguard Newspapers. The article is so disgusting and annoying that i have to just republish it for your own viewing. The rate land scammers and property speculators go about stealing other people's lands and defrauding people off their hard earned money is so disheartening and painful to read. I wonder why they don't have the fear of God in them. Excerpts of the Article is written below:

Land Deal: Lawyer, others dupe man of N24m with fake C of O

on August 13, 2011 / in Crime Guard 12:00 am / Comments

By IFEANYI OKOLIE

Three suspected fraudsters including a lawyer are correctly cooling off at the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, Milverton Ikoyi, Lagos, following their arrest recently by detectives from the SFU, who got wind of their criminal activities in cloning Certificates of Occupancy.

The fraudsters who operate a close knitted syndicate in the state met their waterloo after they successfully duped their unsuspected victim of a whopping sum of N24m in a purported land deal using a fake C of O.

Police sources said, the suspects who were identified as Sheu Kabiru, Samuel Ajibola and Bar. Rotimi Akintokun were apprehended following a petition made by one of their victims Kami Olaleye, who claimed he was swindled off the sum of N24m after he read through an advertisement in of the National dailies of May 2008, where a piece of land at Magodo GRA II, Shangisha, Lagos, was placed for sale.

*The suspects Sheu Kabiru, Samuel Ajibola and Bar. Rotimi Akintokun

He said he paid the said sum to the lawyer, Rotimi Akintokun, of No.1, Balogun Street, Ikeja, who acted then as lawyer to the family. An old woman and two others who posed as the real owners of the land executed Deed of Assignment and they also issued the victim a receipt.

But Kami Olaleye, was shocked when he discovered that the C. of O. and letter of allocation given to him by the owners were all faked on verification at the Land Registry, Alausa.

Following their arrest Sheu Kabiru, 54-year-old man from Kwara State, confessed to the crime and explained that the syndicate operates with Rotimi Akintokun as their lawyer and ring leader. He also said Akintokun assigns roles to all members of the syndicate.

He introduced one old woman from Ikorodu to pose as the real owner of the land, one Iya Osa as her daughter, Jibola as mama’s son, one Lekan Dudu who produced the fake documents, then one Tope as a member of Tokosi family, and Ibe who acted as the agent.

The money was paid into the Rotimi’s account and he was the one who shared the money to all of us. Rotimi said 10 percent of the money was meant for security, 25 percent for himself, 20 percent for Ibe. “I and four others were given N11.5million and my own share N3m, Jibola took 2.5m and Tobe got and others N2.5m”.

When asked how he spent his own share of the loot. Kabiru said he used part of it to process a Visa to Tunisia, which turned out to be fake when he travelled to Tunis and was turned back. But some of the money was spent on clothes and I gave some to my girlfriend. But the situation of the country led me into fraud,” he admitted.

Samuel Ajibola, who impersonated the real owner’s son as Basiru Tokosi, hails from Okewa in Oro-ago Kwara State. He claimed that he was introduced into the business of fraud by Sheu Kabiru.

“It was Sheu Kabiru who assigned me the role of the son of the actual owner of the land, Abibatu Tokosi. But I don’t know how they got the C. of O. But the whole transaction took place in the lawyer’s office at Ikeja and the lawyer also coordinated the share of the loots. He gave me N12million naira cheque to withdraw the same day. My own share was just N2million and I spent them in buying a Nissan Primera Car for N800,000. I rented a room and parlour at No. 48, Adebowale Ojodu Sabo and furnished it. I also did some shopping,” he said.

But Rotimi Akintokun, the alleged leader of the syndicate who hails from Ijebu-Ijesha in Osun State denied having any knowledge of fraud. He narrated how he was lured into the syndicate. According to him “George Ibeh introduced me to one Mrs. Tokosi and her children and then and they gave me the C of O which I took to confirm the genuineness at the registrar in Alausa Record Room, before the sum of N24million was paid into my account.”

He also explained that the advertisement of the land in the National dailies was done by George Ibeh who acted as an agent to the owner of the land. There is no doubt that the whole transaction was done in my office and that signed all the necessary documents, but I had no knowledge that the C.of O was faked.

He also gave the name of all members of the syndicate as Mr. Bashiru, Jibola, Alfa Sheu Kabiru( Mama Tokosi)Iya Ikorodu (her daughter) Iya Osa (Mr. George Ibeh and himself. He admitted receiving N8million as the money accruable to him while N 5million was given to George Ibeh. The remaining N11 million was shared by the rest.

The Commissioner of Police in Charge of the SFU Chinweke Asadu told Crime Guard that all the arrest suspects wwould be charged to court at the completion of investigations. He also assured that the police will go after all those who participated in the fraud.


- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/08/land-deal-lawyer-others-dupe-man-of-n24m-with-fake-c-of-o/#sthash.YLOnamFd.dpuf

Although the article is old, it still has most of the key ingredients fraudulent Land scammers use to scam and deceive people till date:

1. A Fake C of O was paraded around as the document that would be given to the buyer but the buyer paid N24Million without verifying the authenticity of the Certificate of Occupancy.

2. The Fraudulent Scammers posed as Children and Owners of the Property and pretended to the authorized Signatory to the documents and ended up giving the Seller a Fake deed of Assignment, Fake C/O, Fake Letter of Allocation and fake Receipt.

3. Money was paid into the Lawyers account Why should money be paid into the Lawyer's account when the so called family members were present at the Signing and there is no Power of Attorney Granting the Lawyer to authority to receive Money on their behalf?

4. The so called property was advertised in a National daily but the Seller did not take steps to verify the Agent, Seller(s), their place of abode and how they obtained the Documents

5. Also any Property Lawyer that is well versed in Property law and land matters should know that a C of O Would only contain the name of the original owner of the property and he or she is the only person that has the right to sell that property to another person. There is no need for people to pretend to be children or members of a family when it has nothing to do with them and a proper search at the Land registry would show the passport photograph of the individual who has the C of O. How the seller of the Land managed to avoid a simple land verification to ascertain all these facts by employing an experienced property lawyer or land verification expert is beyond baffling to say the least.

6. Finally the most annoying part of it is what these land scammers would do with your hard earned money. You can read how they shared N24Million to buy cars, spend your money on their girl friends, use it to travel round the world at your expense, rent swanky apartments and go shopping with your money.

( I highlighted this part so that it will really hurt you to know what it means to buy a land without doing a proper verification. You work thankless hours of the day to provide shelter for your family and when your ready, you choose to do Ijebu by ignoring the simple details and not verifying the land. You argue and try to haggle the price to do a proper land search but your afraid of the Seller, Omoniles, Agents and all those scammers breathing down your neck to pay Millions for the land today unless another person would buy it and you finally succumb to their pressure and find out later you have been scammed. See what they would use your hard earned money to do above. Buy Suya, beer plus Nwokbi, Buy clothes for Girlfriends and take them shopping with your money, buy flashy cars that you cant afford now because you have prioritized your life and budget and rent swanky apartment etc. Is it worth all this stress and unhappiness?

Now they have brought Special fraud Unit into the Matter plus High court and the amount of money they would use to settle police and other people. How much would it have cost the Seller to organize a proper land verification or engage experts to do it? I doubt he would recover the full sum paid to these scammers and its very sad to hear stories like this that could have been avoided from the very start.

7. Last but not the least; The Lawyer Fall my hand sha and fellow NBA members. Very unprofessional and extremely unethical in his dealings concerning this issue.

Please shine your eyes and learn to do a land verification before you buy any land. Contact professions to help you out lest you throw away Millions of your family fortune to these kind of people you have just read about above. It cost you nothing and if you choose to ignore it, be prepared to leave a life of pains and sorrow.

ha lawyer..even you

A carpenter was enough to marry the mother of Jesus, i wonder why girls of nowadays wants dangote son.

My lord

I no even fit read am finish sef. Old crime come long like this, not even a summary.
Anyways just bought a land in Banana Island, hope my Cof O is not fake

God bless you Lawyer for bring this scam to our notice.
One just have to be very careful before buying a property in this country.

I don hear oo

Lawyer too

.

Ajibola , Akintokun, Tope, Iya Osa, Bashiru, Lekan shame on you all.

DonColz1: A carpenter was enough to marry the mother of Jesus, i wonder why girls of nowadays wants dangote son.

what is he saying please

Na so the economy bad reach ? Even lawyer sef dey do pass yahoo boi....24m cash...

Lie Lie

lol.....I wonder why this tread empty....

where are those youruba e-warriors

sCun: Ajibola , Akintokun, Tope, Iya Osa, Bashiru, Lekan shame on you all.

Tribalist leave this thread.

End time fake c & o

Haaaaa Lawyer? U jst disgraced us.....don't u have ur Rules of professional Conduct?.....omo na 'DeRobe' b dt o

This is sad.Land issue is a very sensitive one.Oga d law thanks for sharing.

otijah: I no even fit read am finish sef. Old crime come long like this, not even a summary.
Anyways just bought a land in Banana Island, hope my Cof O is not fake

Kids all over nairaland.

But the situation of the country led me into fraud,” he admitted

Of course, when you commit a crime and get caught just blame it on the situation of the country cause na only u dey this country.

Lawyer claims he wasn't aware the c of o was fake, yet he got N8 mil for the deal. Who pays a lawyer more than 10% of a deal? Nonsense! That's how they go around selling people's land.

I always advise people trying to buy land not to pay outrightly. Pay a small percentage, then start a small work on the land (mini-fencing is the best). If no one confronts you to claim you are trespassing, then you can start off the major payment.

See as they spent the man's N24 mill like say na 24 thousand!

@Omoonilelawyer, they did use a professional, a lawyer.

Na today ?
Ndi Yoruba scamming land buyers in Lagos is legendary na
No be news
Ngwa people do same in Aba and Ikwerre people are specialist in the same scam in PortHarcourt
Sometimes sef the rightful owners will sell the same piece of land to 3 or more people and collect money from all and chop
And they end up in court
Or they sell you a land in dispute and chop ya money
A lot of Nigerians have criminal minds

this space is Not For Sale!! Beware of Omoniles n Lawyers!!

nchewi: this space is Not For Sale!! Beware of Omoniles n Lawyers!!

You get C of O? Lol!