These crooked Swindling fraudulent Land Sharks cheat people daily and sow the seed of suspicion in the minds of future Land buyers and are continuously hovering and revolving around the property market, looking for big spending Victims to take advantage of. As long as you have money to invest, whether it is N200,000 for a plot of Land or N20Million your spending, there is someone out there trying to trick you out of it. These are criminally minded people who actually don?t know Jack about the business process of the Real Estate industry but they use fraudulent lands as source to extract money from victims.
With this in mind I am starting this very important thread to teach people about some of the types of Land Scams I have encountered in the last 5 years based on the deluge of requests for property/ Land searches I have been receiving daily from potential buyers who know people that have been hustled or scammed badly with respect to Lands or properties they tried to buy in Lagos. Most of them walked unknowing into these Land Transactions innocently without any form of suspicion that they were about to be hustled, deceived or scammed and I also encourage other people to write their own land scam stories to educate people too to avoid these scenarios in future and I will continue to update this thread with any new scam I encounter.
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This Scam is very rampant especially in Rural Lagos such as in areas like Alimosho, Epe, Egbe, Ikotun, Ifako, Alakukuo, Iba, Iyana paja, Ikorodu, Igbogbo, Ayobo, Badagry and some areas in Ibeju Lekki etc.
The simple gist about this kind of Land Scam is that the Government based on different regimes past have ear marked some projects in some of these areas that they intend to execute in future. For example proposed bridges, schools, government housing schemes, museums, pottery villages, cemeteries or buildings of national or state importance and have allocated hectares of land for this huge projects from these communities. At times the government uses its power to take these lands off these communities based on certain reasons best known to them but in almost all situations they compensate the community they took these lands from and warn them to stay clear off these lands.
Well we all know the way thing work in Nigeria. The government might acquire these hectares of Land but information about the location of the land might be very sketchy and they might not even fence it. But being a Government land it has been recorded in their system and whenever a new administration decides its time to look into that project as a priority they now go and acquire their lands but one thing the Government always does is to put various sign boards around warning people that the land has been acquired by the government and trespassers should beware of the land.
But this is what these Land Scammers would do next:
1. They will monitor for months the frequency of government officials that come around to view the lands if they are still secure and wait till the vists become less regular.
2. They will now send their boys to go and remove the signboards at night one by one so that you won?t know where the government land starts or ends.
3. They begin to parade and patrol these areas as owners of the land and claim it belongs to their community
4. You are desperate for a land and you don?t do due diligence or call a lawyer versed in land search to carry out a thorough investigation and you end up paying for the land.
5. You will enter 1 chance because the land wasn?t theirs in the first place, you can?t build on it, you can?t recover your money because they are rouges and finally your house will be demolished compulsorily because you had no right to be there in the first place because that government school has been zoned to be on that land by fire or by force.
TRUE STORY:
A Woman called me last year to help her do a search for her after she read some of my blogs on Nairaland. Funny enough her husband was already quarreling with her for delaying the payment for a land an omoonile took them to view a land around Igando side to buy and that the land was a virgin land and they has been no dispute on the land either legally or personal. After discussing the price, they said they should go and pay the money to the Baale since the land belongs to him and the Omoonile stated that no other person has been on the land apart from the Baale?s descendants. She was very curious because they just kept pointing to the land from afar without giving them a full tour of the land but they kept on haranguing her pay quickly because other people were also interested in the land.
When she later called me, I asked her if a surveyor has gone to take the coordinates of the land to chart it, she said no because she didn?t have any surveyor and contracted me to go and do the search. I called the Omoonile and pretended I was the brother of the woman who was actually the one who was to pay on her behalf and I was carrying N3Million cash to pay them. The Baale said he will personally meet me to collect the money. He was dressed in his full Baale Regalia when I got to his palace and with his other chiefs ready to divide N3Million. I told them I wanted to see the land personally and they told me since ?my sister has already seen it there was no point again? I told them no that I want to take pictures for my architect and the reluctantly agreed. On getting to the site I was advised not to walk into the bush because of snakes but after I pay they will cut the grass properly for me to see my land. I told them ok and told my other colleague to write them a cheque and discuss money matters with the. That check matter distracted them while I ventured into the land to look around to try and see if I could see any beacon number or foundation on the land to query them. I saw something better. A Big sign showing the proposed NYSC Permanent site and buyers should beware buried deep in to the ground. Can you imagine?
On further investigation I found out that there is presently a court battle between some community members and the lagos state government over that NYSC camp site. That?s how I shouted and started querying them that they are about to sell us a whole NYSC Camp land and some of them started speaking gibberish. Some just decided to walk away since they knew game was up, while one brandishing a matchet was just screaming that the land is theirs and government cannot take it from them blah blah. I now asked them why they didn?t tell us they were about to sell us NYSC camp land and he said its not his business to educate a buyer on the land to buy because that should be their lawyers job and that their own is to sell any land to collect their money till they tell them otherwise and if I don?t buy, another person that isn?t sharp or smart will buy and that?s how they bullied me to get out of that place.
QUICK TIP TO AVOID THIS SCENARIO:
1. If you?re going to visit a land for the first time before you call in the professionals such as me or a surveyor, make sure you walk through the whole land and check the 4 corners of the land to see if there is any beacon number or foundation or any object on it. Study the land well to see if any object has been removed. If your not sure, continue to ask the seller repeatedly why that land is vacant and what is prompting them to sell. 7 out of 10 times, if you continue to ask that question, you will get the same response but a fraudulent one will continue to change his story or add new hidden details that is worth checking out before you commit that money.
Bottomline Shine your eye well well before you go and throw away your money to buy Government Land. Fashola no go pity you o!
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In fact I can?t count how many people have fallen for this type of Land Scam tire in Lagos. The general rule is that if there is a dispute on a land, the best way to solve a problem is by going to court. The court now gives a judgment on the land and depending on the dispute at hand, the case might go to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and it might take years before judgement is given in their favour.
Now Swindling Omooniles have also devised a method of duping unsuspecting buyers of land by brandishing Court judgments in their favour to show that they own title to land and with that judgment they can sell the land without any fear or favour. Buyers glance through the judgment and they see the heading ?IN THE HIGH COURT OF LAGOS STATE LAGOS DIVISION? etc and see court stamps and signature of a judge plus the date of the judgment and conclude instantly that the land is a good land and they buy it based on that judgment they have seen. A few months later they see another court process that the land is under dispute at the Appeal court and Mr X Y Z is the true owner of the land based on the Appeal court decision. The Buyer runs mad, begins to run here and there to clarify what this new judgment means and the Omooniles of the land have either run away or start speaking gibberish that they will take the case to court or settle out of court but your money is gone and your wondering what the hell has just happened.
Well this is what happens most of the time that the Land Scammers do:
1. They realize that there is a land dispute going on and they rush to court to get an injunction order or an order of court concerning that land. ?A COURT ORDER IS NOT A JUDGMENT? They are 2 different things. The Order is to prevent and issue from occurring for the meantime till the whole case has been settled or an Order for something to be carried out based on the court?s request concerning a particular issue not the whole case in front of the court and Court Orders could come in various forms .
2. The Omoonile see the Court Orders and start brandishing it as a Court Judgement and an unsuspecting buyer views the Court order with a Unclad eye and is satisfied.
3. In most situations the Court Orders are newly obtained so they always refer to the date to show that they own possession and the court has given them ?JUDGMENT? Meanwhile the real case is still in court o!
4. The buyer is happy that the court has even stepped in to protect them, so he can buy. Tomorrow he gets a Court summon that he has been joined as a party to the Court case or Suit as a trespasser and the Omooniles are no where to be found.
5. Another format is to truly obtain a HIGH COURT JUDGEMENT and start brandishing it around that they have won the case concerning that land. In fact they are so confident with that high court case judgement that they dare anyone to challenge its validity.
6. What they do not tell you is that, that case in now at the Court of Appeal and the judgment could sway between those parties in dispute.
7. These Omooniles are so smart because they get expert advise from some lawyers that their case might not hold water and their high court judgment might be thrown out on Appeal. On hearing that, they become aggressive in their marketing strategies to make sure they sell all their lands quickly based on that High Court Judgment and when wahala comes they are no where to be found and your left to deal with the true owner.
8. The worst case scenario is actually forging a Supreme Court Judgment and brandishing it around as an authentic judgment and when the Buyer sees Supreme Court, they already feel comfortable but it is a forged document from A-Z
What is common in all these stories is that the Buyer failed to do one thing. Investigate it 
. For Christ sakes, an Omoonile or Agent gives you a court document as proof of ownership of land and you refuse to give a lawyer to go an confirm its authenticity? I don?t pretend to be an Architect or Surveyor just because am conversant with Land issues? A professional is a professional. Contact them to investigate deeper concerning this Court Orders or Judgment so that they can advise you properly. Buyers don?t want to spend money for search but they are always ready to pay millions for a land when the basic N50,000 can save you millions.
TRUE STORY:
I Have a plethora of stories like this that I have encountered over the years but this one I want to tell you takes the Cherry.
A Nairalander Alhaji Rasheed whom I have become very very close friends with told me about a land he intended to buy at Maryland and he told me about it. Because Alhaji knows the way I operate, he didn?t waste time to drill the Sellers about the Documents they have and they were more concerned about selling their land at Maryland for N10Million per plot. They told him they have a Court Judgement that has granted them the land with a survey and the main person he should deal with was the family secretary of the Onigbongbo family.
When Alhaji told me about it I was skeptical and wanted to know more. The secretary of the family came to drop the judgment at my office and I studied it carefully and noticed the following defects:
1. It was a 1967 judgement that gave the land to the onigbongbo family as original settlers
2. The judgment had no survey plan to map out the area that belonged to the Onigbongbo family, so how do you know which area it falls under?
3. There was no no court stamp on it of the judge or judges that gave the judgment
4. It wasn?t registered as a certified true copy from the courts records
5. In 2012, some people are claiming to be descendants of the onigbongbo family based on a supreme court judgment obtained in 1967? ( Where is the proof of that lineage or descendants)
6. Are they telling me that since 1967, there has being no court case on that land and everybody that bought land from there, derived title from the 1967 supreme court judgment without them obtaining a C/O?
7. I Asked for the survey plan of that area and they brought me a new Survey plan dated September 2012 covering that supreme court judgment.
Now for a neutral buyer, these documents look new but the above questions raise a lot of dusts that cannot be answered and I trust Alhaji Rasheed. As soon as I gave him my search report, he begin to fire them and backed out of the deal. If Alhaji Rasheed had behaved like some people I know and claim to be experts on landed documents without seeking professional advice, that?s how N10Million would have just sunk into the drain without any head or tail. (What am I even saying sef, Alhaji would just break my Neck . . . No stories) lol
QUICK TIP TO AVOID THIS SCENARIO:
Any time you see the owner of a land produce a court judgment as his title, spend that money to do a conclusive search unless you would just lose your money and buy an on going law suit. Don?t do Ijebu, spend that money to contact a property lawyer to do a proper search and save yourself millions of Gbese Naira 
How many of you that have either bought lands or intend to buy lands have heard this famous scamming line: ? A LOT OF BIG PEOPLE HAVE BOUGHT LAND HERE? or ? SO MANY BIG GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAVE THEIR LANDS HERE? or ? SHELL OR MTN COOPERATIVE HAVE BOUGHT SO MANY HECTARES OF LAND HERE FOR THEIR STAFF? etc
Naturally when you hear something like this, you feel very comfortable and you want to buy a land because they tell you that your proposed neighbor is a staff of cheveron or probably the special adviser to the commissioner has 3 lands here or has built his house there and has perfected his papers, but there is a problem with this statement! How come they haven?t shown you any of the so called big men that bought lands there or contacted with you with Etisalat Cooperative head that bought the so called lands for their staffs or shown you the documents that the Government Official that bought lands there has perfected? ( All na story story to coerce you to pay for the land without due diligence)
A Popular ploy is to employ this tactic when they see the buyer is either in a haste to buy, or anxious to secure the land. Its when they see the client is apprehensive that he might lose the land if he doesn?t pay now to become close neighbours with the Conoil cooperative people that the Omonile or dodgy agent comes up with the real kill, which is telling you that the land for sale belongs to the Baale of the community.
The aim of telling you that all lands belongs to the Baale is to give you that false sense of security that the lands are under the security of a Community ruler. The truth is that most of these Omoniles go around scouting for lands that have been unattended to or prime lands in choice locations that have been abandoned. Because they know they don?t have the capacity to convince you that they are the owners of the land due to the fact that they cannot produce receipts or documents to prove ownership, they now tell you that the land belongs to the Baale. They know you don?t have the audacity to start questioning the bale about the genuiness of the property and if he says yes he is the owner, then his word is law and acceptable.
The truth is that the Baale might not even know where the land is located. All he is interested in is the money to sign your documents that he will pocket and the probable foundation fees but he will direct you to pay the money to the Omonile that showed you the land and that you have no problems that your covered with him. That?s the ultimate false sense of security. You end up purchasing the land based on the recommendation of the Baale?s security and when the true owner comes up to take his land, wahala will start. The best the Baale will do for you is send his thugs to go and beat up the workers of the true owner but after you involve the law or police they will back off totally and leave you to your fate. They will deny your existence or that deal until they finally agree to relocate you to a less desirous place after they have accepted they took your money when the police steps in.
At the end of the day, you wont see any cooperative owner of land or big commissioner as your neighbor but staring at real time land hustlers who have just conned you off your money.
TRUE STORY:
This happened early this year at Ikorodu. A Nairalander saw a piece of land at Ikorodu GRA Extension. Now he didn?t do any search what so ever and the Omoniles took him to a place adjacent to that GRA Extension and told him that the adjoining land belongs to staffs of MTN cooperative and they intend to buy more. He was so happy that he decided to pay Land and asked them who owned it. They told it all the lands there belonged to the Baale of the town and they took him to their Baale?s palace. The Baale bamboozled him that he was the owner and that he even was the one that sold the government land to the government so there was no worry, that?s how he paid on the spot N2Million through a check to be cashed over board and the Omoniles gave him a clean bill of health to start work.
4 months later as he decided to do something there, he found another person doing a foundation there, he attacked the person and found out that it was the same Baale that sold that land to the new person the second time. The once charming and supportive Baale changed into a Viper and started evading our fellow nairalander. After almost 5 months of evasion to collect his money back, he decided to call me and I took the matter straight with the Police. Upon investigation, we found out that the Baale did not even know anything about the land in question or had even seen it. He was just a lackey the Omoniles used to obtain money from the Buyer. Efforts to locate the Omoniles afterwards have proved elusive and he cannot lay claim to the land because the Baale also sold the land fraudulently to the second buyer. He has lost both the money and the Land. The Baale has been set free by the police and he is still going around reselling people?s abandoned lands and passing it off as his own.
QUICK TIP TO AVOID THIS SCENARIO:
Never be bamboozled by big talk of sellers or agents claiming that a lot of big people stay there. Ask them to give you contacts of the big people that stay there and immediately you will see their faces change with such displeasure and shock that you had the audacity to ask. Immediately story will change. If it was true that big men stayed there, they should be willing to take you there to meet the person or show you copies of his perfected documents
Also when they take you to a Baale, please do not be intimidated after the initial courtesies and respect. The fact that he is taking your money for land has reduced him to a business man and not an Overlord. Quiz him to the last. The more he gets reclusive, angry, irritated and generally feeling uncomfortable with the questions realize something funny is going on and that?s your cue to get lost or forever hold your peace and see your cash drift away. If you cant do it, contact me or a property lawyer. Don?t take things for granted when it comes to issues like this or you will cry later.
I will write 2 more popular scams later in the day to make SCAM 4 AND SCAM 5 so stay tuned and bookmark this page. I have over 50 scams I have encountered in land issues in Lagos alone that I intend to share so that you don?t fall victims of these unscrupulous land swindlers. Right now let me go cut my birthday because your favourite Omonile Lawyer is a Year Older today. I pray God gives me the strength to continue exposing these bad thing these Omoniles are doing and help people save millions of Naira through these expose. Cheers
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pls who actually read this thing?
Informative informations...nice
The Law,may reward bless you for these helpful information.I'll be visiting Nigeria Next month and will be need your service. Kindly email your contact phone for private conversation.
Oh thanks lawyer. I learnt a thing or two. Don't let the comments of idiots get to u. Cheers.
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Tanks 4 d tips.
Thanks for the vital information.
very educative piece.....thanks lawyer
one thing i know is i am never buying a land in lagos.....just buy a house via the state government is a safer bet! i don't think area boys disturb people who buy houses and are ready to move in. buying pieces of land in lagos exposes one to different scams!
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john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?
I am reading word by word.
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john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?another product of our failed education system
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Thank you and God bless.
Nice Piece!
john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?
I did. And believe me you should too.
We need to keep in check those lazy, fraudulent and good-for-nothing guys that fleece people off their hard-earned money in land scams.
Keep up the good work, Lawyer.
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Happy birthday the Law!!
The Nemesis of fraudulent Omoniles!
May God continue to reward you and enlarge your coast of knowledge.
Nigeria needs more of you. . . . bring them on
Nice piece.Thanks a bunch
I just hate dealing with dose omonile guys. . .my dad bought a land years ago sumwhr in Agric, ikorodu (igbolohun). And it was just frm one problem 2d other. We lost dat land. .only if i knew this then...
I can't believe I read all this.. Very educative. Mehn people are smart no be small
Thanks sir. Please I think I'll need your assistance. I'm planning to buy half plot in Simawa from an agent and I feel I should make proper research before buying it. Although its very cheap. Please let me have your contact. Here's my email: tk_toks@yahoo.com. Thanks
criminals! swindling pple out of their hard earned money,may God help us in lagos.
Oga lawyer, u do well ohhh. God bless yu oh.
Happy birthday oooh.
john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?same here.. But op na space them dey sell here.. Ask senu
john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?I for one read it, and I enjoyed it.
@lawyer, I dey gbadun u, may God bless you.
Its soo obvious that some people just decide to be damn daft or are they born that way? How can you explain someone still questioning the importance of this thread? Poster please ride on! Good write up!makes sense die!
john_shagb: pls who actually read this thing?I did, as you do not have money to buy land yet, please abstain, you are not needed here.
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Hail Barrister Matthew for great insight
So some of all these useless baale's are complicit in this crime? Hmmmm, person gas shine eye wella o. Thanks Man.
Source: http://www.nairaland.com/1113905/lagos-real-estate-omonile-land
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Nice article.Real Estate Lawyer
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