FCT House Owners Lament Multiple Charges

Owners of houses at the
Clobek Crown Estate, Lugbe, Abuja have condemned the estate management for introducing numerous maintenance fees, saying it is contrary to the terms of agreement between both parties.
The Chairman of the Residents Association of Clobek Crown Estate, Mr Oliver Otonyo, spoke on behalf of owners and tenants of the estate at a news conference in Abuja on Saturday.
According to the chairman, Mr Bernard Ekwe, the Manager of the estate has been introducing many fees and charges that have amounted to extortions and abuse of human rights of the occupants.
Citing examples, Otonyo said that the estate service charges were increased from N198, 300 to N257, 800 and compulsory generator bill of N300, 000 annually was imposed on residents.
He also condemned the way the estate management forced occupants to use the estate’s central generating set rather than using their individual generators, “just to extort residents’’.
He said that as a result of the bogus generator charges, residents had been disconnected from the PHCH and prohibited from using their own private generators.
The chairman said that limited access was also given to visitors of residents in the estate, which he described as “human right abuse’’.
“Those of us who bought apartment in the estate are saying that Mr Ekwe, the manager, has no right to interfere in the running of the estate since we have already bought the property.
“Moreover, you don’t just issue new terms of agreement after we have paid and taken over our property. Things are not done that way,’’ he said.
Otonyo said that when the manager of the estate brought the agreement, which he referred to as “a bye-law’’ both residents and house owners refused to signed.
He said that this made the manager to issue a letter of revocation of allocation to the house owners since February 23., which had been reported to relevant authorities, “including the church he worships’’.
“He has made living in the estate for house owners and residents a hell, as every week, a new letter demanding for one fee or the other is issued to us.
“They look for ever opportunity to exploit and force down bills on us and we are tired,’’ he said.
He said that the most recent petition was written to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Zone 4, by the estate resident association concerning the inhuman treatments and extortions “and we are still awaiting response’’.
Our correspondent who speak to the Manager of the estate to get his side of the story, was useful as there was no response at the time of filing the report.