Accuse govt of fraudulent practices

The Ogun State housing scheme applicants, who are mostly retired civil servants, have rejected the state government’s decision asking them to pay additional N3.5 million after allocation of the two-bedroom bungalow at the Prince Court Estate, Kobape, Abeokuta.

The controversial housing scheme, according to them, was paid for about three years ago while about 200 of them who paid N5.5 million were yet to be given their housing units.

The government had last month said that the inflation rate pushed the value of the property to N20 million, leading to total rejection of the stance.

The state’s Commissioner for Housing, Akinade Omoniyi, said that the government had allocated houses to 110 applicants but asked the beneficiaries to pay an additional N3.5 million each.

Omoniyi, in a letter to the applicants on Monday, said: “It should be reiterated that this allocation is subject to your fulfillment of a proviso indicating that all allottees of Phase III are to pay N3,500,000 each being a fair and subsidised contribution for provision of infrastructural facilities in the estate.

Reacting yesterday, Olumuyiwa Oludaisi, who spoke on behalf of others, urged the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led government to stop playing undue tricks with innocent applicants who paid the amount the government charged in 2020/2021, describing such acts as “inconsistent, irresponsible and fraudulent.”

The applicants alleged that there is a shift in position of the government not to allocate the Phase lll houses to the 235 legitimate subscribers published earlier as qualified in 2022, adding that their ploy was to re-sell to the highest bidders after using their money to build the estate.

Oludaisi, who thanked the governor for allocating 110 houses to applicants out of the 235 qualified applicants after three years of payment to the government coffers, said the governor should be magnanimous enough to allocate houses to the remaining subscribers and remove the said additional fee, as it was never part of the agreement.

He said that the government must be responsible and stop the politics on innocent applicants as it is clear that those 110 applicants allocated houses would automatically lose it upon their failure to pay additional N3.5 million, while such lost allocation would be given to their cronies who are not qualified for such a low cost scheme.