Goodevening House,
I have open few thread talking about how I purchase a land in the East, not knowing that it was fraud. But I decided to bare all open here, so that the lawyers here can advise. I know its very long but please bear with me.
It was in 2019, I met a well known man where I was working, he told me he is into real estate and he has good lands for sale, incase I or someone I know wants to buy, that I should please patronize him. Fast-forward to 2020, I needed a land urgently and I contacted him, he said he has lands and even personal ones. We went to the land and I liked it, he also took me to an elder that confirmed that he was the owner, we agreed on price and paid later on, I asked for the title of the land, he said its a native land, so he handed me the power of attorney. He also told me that his firm does survey, after back and forth, I paid him for survey and he did it.
Fast forward to 2020 when I wanted to start developing the land, I went there, to my surprise all the structures there have been demolished and the entire land has been fence, I was lucky I haven't started any major project, just fencing. I called the seller, he said he was aware, imagine! He didn't even informed me. He said it was a misunderstanding that is being solved, that our land is secured there, that its a matter of time. This didn't sit well with me that I entered and asked some supervisors there, they said the land belongs to the govt, the govt bought the place since 40 years ago, that fraudsters took advantage of it not being fenced and sold to unsuspecting individuals, that whoever sold to me is a fraudster. I called him back and informed him of what I was hearing, he insisted that all was well and I will get my land back. I gave him time, but when it started looking like all he said were lies, I demanded my money back. He promised that he will pay and kept playing me like that for 7 months.
However, it became unbearable that I had to report to Efcc but after a month I went to check the status of my petition but they told me that there is a new policy, that any land fraud case that is not up to 5m, that they don't entertain it, that I should go to police, that was how I went to police.
My kinsman who is a barrister knows someone in one of their departments, so we wrote a petition and it was approved for investigation. The dept sent invitation to the suspect but he refused to come for about 2 months he was giving excuses and hiding. Luckily he was traced and arrested. Before his arrest, I have told the IPO of my desire to pursue it in court and they agreed with me, that the suspect needs to defend himself in court. But surprisingly once he was arrested, I observed that the story changed, people that were eager abnitio to arraign him in court was nolonger keen to prosecute, when I insisted they said their dept makes use of Federal High Court for their cases and that courts are on vacation, that the only federal high court sitting for the south zone is in PH and that if they arraign him there, that when finally court resumes that it will be hard to withdraw it. Checking all these, I knew they were indirectly telling me that the cost will be on me. It is worthy to not that while he was refusing honoring invitation and hiding, I was advised by my lawyer to start a civil suit for liquidated money demand under the undefended list and claim my money back which I did. I told the police that the matter should be charge to court that I have already started a civil suit to claim my money. They said the suspect is pleading to pay the money back, that they will give him a chance, I told them that he has played me for 7 months and didn't pay, that I am more comfortable with the court. They allowed him wrote the first undertaking and failed, I told them to charge the matter to court, their same excuse was courts were on vacation and he wrote a second undertaking, when the second one failed, I told them that court has resumed that he should be taken to court but still nothing happened.
During that period, the court served the suspect court summons for the civil suit I initiated, then police started saying that since I went to court, that they can't continue with the matter. I told them that a criminal and civil matter can run simultaneously, that the civil court is to recover my money while the criminal case is for him to answer for selling a government owned land to me and threatened my life when I was asking for my money. But it appeared that they didn't want to act on that.
Few days later, I was asked to come to the station, only to be presented with a writeup from the suspect's lawyer, attached with the writ of summons on my case that baliff served him. The lawyer wrote the police asking them to discontinue their investigation since the matter is in court, with so many lies contained in the letter, that even the police knew that they are lies but yet they granted it.
I and my lawyer tried pointing out to them how the civil case in the court doesn't concern police investigation and prosecution but they wouldn't have it. They said they have been given order to halt their investigation until the court case is determined or that if I withdraw the case from court, then they can resume investigation.
Now, all my faith is in the court to get judgement and recover my money. If anyone has any further actions that I can take, please suggest.
Or is this how police work?

This is unacceptable and a big disappointment from the police, they've been bribed to bury the case.

Continue pursuing it in court, hopefully you will recover your money back.

In saner climes, That fraudster should be in prison by now.

You can go further and expose the unprofessional conduct of police to the media, they will act fast

Jesus help us in Nigeria,.

Never will I do serious business again in this country without having everything recorded on camera

This is why we need debt collectors in Nigeria

Chechem:
Goodevening House,
I have open few thread talking about how I purchase a land in the East, not knowing that it was fraud. But I decided to bare all open here, so that the lawyers here can advise. I know its very long but please bear with me.
It was in 2019, I met a well known man where I was working, he told me he is into real estate and he has good lands for sale, incase I or someone I know wants to buy, that I should please patronize him. Fast-forward to 2020, I needed a land urgently and I contacted him, he said he has lands and even personal ones. We went to the land and I liked it, he also took me to an elder that confirmed that he was the owner, we agreed on price and paid later on, I asked for the title of the land, he said its a native land, so he handed me the power of attorney. He also told me that his firm does survey, after back and forth, I paid him for survey and he did it.
Fast forward to 2020 when I wanted to start developing the land, I went there, to my surprise all the structures there have been demolished and the entire land has been fence, I was lucky I haven't started any major project, just fencing. I called the seller, he said he was aware, imagine! He didn't even informed me. He said it was a misunderstanding that is being solved, that our land is secured there, that its a matter of time. This didn't sit well with me that I entered and asked some supervisors there, they said the land belongs to the govt, the govt bought the place since 40 years ago, that fraudsters took advantage of it not being fenced and sold to unsuspecting individuals, that whoever sold to me is a fraudster. I called him back and informed him of what I was hearing, he insisted that all was well and I will get my land back. I gave him time, but when it started looking like all he said were lies, I demanded my money back. He promised that he will pay and kept playing me like that for 7 months.
However, it became unbearable that I had to report to Efcc but after a month I went to check the status of my petition but they told me that there is a new policy, that any land fraud case that is not up to 5m, that they don't entertain it, that I should go to police, that was how I went to police.
My kinsman who is a barrister knows someone in one of their departments, so we wrote a petition and it was approved for investigation. The dept sent invitation to the suspect but he refused to come for about 2 months he was giving excuses and hiding. Luckily he was traced and arrested. Before his arrest, I have told the IPO of my desire to pursue it in court and they agreed with me, that the suspect needs to defend himself in court. But surprisingly once he was arrested, I observed that the story changed, people that were eager abnitio to arraign him in court was nolonger keen to prosecute, when I insisted they said their dept makes use of Federal High Court for their cases and that courts are on vacation, that the only federal high court sitting for the south zone is in PH and that if they arraign him there, that when finally court resumes that it will be hard to withdraw it. Checking all these, I knew they were indirectly telling me that the cost will be on me. It is worthy to not that while he was refusing honoring invitation and hiding, I was advised by my lawyer to start a civil suit for liquidated money demand under the undefended list and claim my money back which I did. I told the police that the matter should be charge to court that I have already started a civil suit to claim my money. They said the suspect is pleading to pay the money back, that they will give him a chance, I told them that he has played me for 7 months and didn't pay, that I am more comfortable with the court. They allowed him wrote the first undertaking and failed, I told them to charge the matter to court, their same excuse was courts were on vacation and he wrote a second undertaking, when the second one failed, I told them that court has resumed that he should be taken to court but still nothing happened.
During that period, the court served the suspect court summons for the civil suit I initiated, then police started saying that since I went to court, that they can't continue with the matter. I told them that a criminal and civil matter can run simultaneously, that the civil court is to recover my money while the criminal case is for him to answer for selling a government owned land to me and threatened my life when I was asking for my money. But it appeared that they didn't want to act on that.
Few days later, I was asked to come to the station, only to be presented with a writeup from the suspect's lawyer, attached with the writ of summons on my case that baliff served him. The lawyer wrote the police asking them to discontinue their investigation since the matter is in court, with so many lies contained in the letter, that even the police knew that they are lies but yet they granted it.
I and my lawyer tried pointing out to them how the civil case in the court doesn't concern police investigation and prosecution but they wouldn't have it. They said they have been given order to halt their investigation until the court case is determined or that if I withdraw the case from court, then they can resume investigation.
Now, all my faith is in the court to get judgement and recover my money. If anyone has any further actions that I can take, please suggest.
Or is this how police work?

first how much is the said amount in question? It will determine if you both can settle outside court. Why am saying this if found guilty of the crime. Hope u no one naira u won't get?.seen 2.8 million try settlement outside the court..



And that's why he insisted in doing the survey by himself. Cause if you did it your self u wonder have found out..

Another thing was that you never did Ur background investigation, you don't buy land like that.. incase of next time..

Ravenna:
This is why we need debt collectors in Nigeria

Nigeria, Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria. The fact that there are no laws to hold people accountable makes the whole thing worse!

faithfull18:

Nigeria, Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria. The fact that there are no laws to hold people accountable makes the whole thing worse!

There are laws to hold people accountable but it only works for the poor man.
Injustice and lawlessness is the greatest terror a government can ever enforce on its own people!

Tag Linda, Tunde and Instablog. Nairaland alone can bring you the solution to your problem. That's 419!

abuomaIV:
Tag Linda, Tunde and Instablog. Nairaland alone can bring you the solution to your problem. That's 419!

Please how do I do this?

Ravenna:


There are laws to hold people accountable but it only works for the poor man.
Injustice and lawlessness is the greatest terror a government can ever enforce on its own people!

True, too much injustice in the land, how do we make progress.

faithfull18:

True, too much injustice in the land, how do we make progress.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: we’ve been bamboozled long enough and we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.
We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth, the bamboozle has captured us and It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan Power over you, you almost never get it back.

Nigeria is in for a long ride.

Chechem:


Please how do I do this?

Use Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

God1000:
This is unacceptable and a big disappointment from the police, they've been bribed to bury the case.

Continue pursuing it in court, hopefully you will recover your money back.

In saner climes, That fraudster should be in prison by now.

You can go further and expose the unprofessional conduct of police to the media, they will act fast

Big disappointment from the police? The big disappointment would have been if the police did their job. You're new to the Nigerian Police Farce?