Rent agent jailed for 1,230 years for defrauding accommodation seekers

March 19, 2018 9:52 AM

Habeeb, also known as Babatunde Salaudeen tricked the rent seekers and made a whopping N28 million ($77,840) of them, under the guise of renting to them 13 apartments in a building located at Alapere-Ketu, Lagos.

A housing agent who claimed to be a site engineer has been handed a jail term of 1,230 years prison term by Lagos High Court in Igbosere, Nigeria for defrauding 101 people who intended to rent apartments.

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who did the prosecution said the convict’s brother who owns the very building he used to defraud the unsuspecting rent seekers is at large, as they believe that he conspired with the convict to orchestrate and execute the whole scam.

Habeeb was found guilty of 82 counts of conspiring with his elder brother, Alhaji Ishola Salaudeen to obtain the N28m under false pretence in 2013, according to The Nation.

Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye who sentenced the convict said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had proven its case against Habeeb beyond reasonable doubts.

So-called housing or rent agents defrauding accommodation seekers is a common development in countries with housing deficit, including Ghana.