PH Residents Lament Fake Estate Agents’ Activities

Residents of Port Harcourt metropolis and it environs have expressed concern over the growing activities of fake estate agents who have defrauded people of their hard-earned money in the pretext of securing accommodation or properties.

They have also urged the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) to wade into the issue to save the public from dupes that parade as real estate agents.

Some of the residents who spoke to The Tide expressed displeasure over the activities of these fake agents who usually take advantage of the high demand for housing with Port Harcourt to dupe their victims.

According to one Felix Ojima, a resident of Diobu in Port Harcourt, one of his relative who he referred to as Gloria harmful was duped of the sum of N150,000 in the process of wanting to rent a one bedroom flat.

He said that the fake agent after collecting the said amount, dishonestly converted the money to his personal use without delivering the said apartment paid for, adding that the dupe in question also on April 8th, had collected another money totaling N400,000 from one Fosca Agbochom for a two bedroom flat at Elekahia Estate, and has since disappeared without a trace.

On her part another victim, Mrs Patience Okwu, said she ran into a fake agent when she wanted to buy a land in Rumuolumeni, pointing out that the said agent usually come around her place of resident at Ojolo Street in Port Harcourt, claiming to have helped people secure land.

Having trusted him, Mrs Okon said she gave out the sum of N600,000 for first in statment, but that later the agent  took her to Rumuosi to show her another plot that was exchanged in place of the one she had paid for at Rumuolumeni but that such arrangement did not go down well with her.

According to her, “It was too late for me when I discovered that Mr Mike had stopped coming to our area and had indeed disappeared with my money.

She had wondered what is becoming the state of those claiming to be estate practitioners and agents in Port Harcourt, if members of the public can easily be deceived in the process of wanting to acquire a property.

For her, she thought that every body operating as an agents is an estate surveyor, and urged members of the NIESV to tackle the issue so as to control the taking of estate practitioners.

Corlins Walter