The Federal Housing Authority (FHA), an agency of the federal government saddled with the responsibility of developing government houses, has warned land buyers and sundry investors to resist land offers in Festac Town, describing such offers as fake.
The housing authority issued the warning in response to an action by New Festac Property Development Company Limited, which is circulating fraudulent land offer letters in the festival town, demanding N49,151,645 for a residential plot.
The company claims to be in partnership with the FHA to issue title documents. But FHA says it is the only agency of government that has exclusive authority for allocating land in the area.
A recent statement by FHA management denied any involvement in the offer, stressing that it alone has the authority to allocate land in Festac, backed by a global Certificate of Occupancy from the federal government.
The statement reads in part: “The attention of the management of Federal Housing Authority has been drawn to a provisional offer letter for the sale of a plot of land at New Festac Town Phase II District, Lagos, by the New Festac Property Development Company Limited signed by one Simon Egodigwe, for the company’s managing director.”
Continuing, the statement read, “the said provisional offer letter is demanding for the sum of forty nine million, one hundred and fifty one thousand, six hundred and forty-five naira, for a residential plot measuring 651.178 square meters, to be made in favour of New Festac Property Development Company Ltd, into a Wema bank account.”
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The housing agency stressed further that is the owner of the entire land in Festac Town, Lagos, for which it was issued a global Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) by the Federal Government, pointing out that the C-of-O makes it the only authority that can issue a letter of allocation on any land in Festac Town.
According to the agency, “any legitimate land allocation in Festac would be formally issued and signed by the FHA’s managing director and chief executive.
Though the FHA entered into a partnership with New Festac Property Development Company Limited for the development of part of Festac Phase II, the project has not been finalized. Currently, only sand filling is ongoing at the site with no formal agreements in place between the FHA and the company.”
The housing agency was therefore worried that New Festac Property Development Company was already fixing land prices and demanding same from the public when the total project cost had not yet been determined.
The agency said it could not verify the authenticity of the provisional offer letter circulating for the sale of land in Festac, advising the public to disregard the offer and desist from engaging in any related transactions.
