Published 4th May, 2023

By Emmanuel Uti

When Tope Brown, an Abuja-based man, paid N12 million in 2016 to Austin Ozioma, the chairman of Pwan Homes, for two plots of land in Ajah, Lagos, he thought he had joined the ranks of landowners in the megacity, but little did he know he had fallen for a sham.

Brown has tried several times to gain ownership of his land, but every step taken has pushed him further from his goal.

Brown told FIJ he and his wife, based in the United States, paid N6 million for a plot of land each in 2017 after an agent of Pwan Homes informed them of a promotion on land in Ajah. The couple did not immediately check the land because they “trusted” the company.

He said Pwan Homes asked Brown and his wife to pay N2 million each after they bought the land, which they did. But ever since the couple completed all the payments, Pwan Homes has ignored their requests for their land.

Since Brown and his wife live outside of Lagos, he would send his ex-coworkers and relatives to Pwan Homes’ office in Ajah to ask the firm to take them to the physical location, but the managing director and the founder avoided taking them there.

“I had to travel from Abuja to their office in Lagos in October 2022. I met with Okpeh Nathaniel, a top staff member, at the office in Sangotedo. This was when I learned that the land they allocated to us is behind the Shoprite in Ajah,” he said.

“When we spoke, he promised me the allocated land would be ready in two weeks, but to date, the two weeks have not arrived.”

Brown said he went to the Pwan Homes office in January after calling Nathaniel, who assured him he would take him to the physical site, but when he arrived in Lagos, Nathaniel did not take his calls.

Payment notification letter from Pwan homes

In February, Brown said, Pwan Homes assured him he would get the land that month, but immediately after he left their office, the company stopped taking his calls.

Realising that things were getting out of hand, Brown said he told his wife to return to Nigeria so they could go to the office to request their money in April.

“The moment they saw us on CCTV, they disappeared. We made so much trouble that day that their staff pleaded with us. One of their staff had to take us to the land they sold to us,” he said.

He said when they got to the estate where the land was, he saw a vast area of unfenced swamp land with a gate mounted at the front to indicate ownership.

“When we tried to get in, the Pwan Homes staffer said the gateman ran away with the key to the gate. I noticed cobwebs had taken over the gate, yet he claimed the gateman ran away the previous day,” he said.

“When I went to their office, I told Nathaniel the story didn’t seem right—an estate where 135 people had paid him N8 each had no noticeable development.”

The following day, Brown and his wife went to the Pwan Homes office to ask the team why they were being played instead of getting the land they paid for, but they told him they were looking for another land for him.

“Their executive director said they had issues with land-snatching thugs there and were trying to look for another land. So seven years after I paid, they were telling me they were looking for another piece of land to buy? This was someone who told us the previous day they would give me access to the land in a week,” he said.

Brown said that after the drama that happened, he knew there was more to the land and so visited the area to find out what might be wrong.

He said he met an old indigene in the area who told him Nathaniel had duped him.

“He told me that PWAN duped me because Nathaniel had not fully paid for the land. He said Nathaniel only paid 15 per cent to the owner of the land in 2014 and told him he would pay up the rest when he sold a part of the land,” Brown recalled.

“The man said he heard PWAN had collected money but had refused to pay the balance, and Baale himself said he would not sell the land at the 2014 rate because it had appreciated.

“Hearing that, I went to their office and requested my money, but they have not refunded me. Pwan Homes has failed to take my calls or respond to my emails.

“He told me to collect my money from them because they wouldn’t be allowed to do anything on the land. The man informed me that they did not have a certificate of ownership for the land.”

When FIJ called Okpeh Nathaniel, the company’s general manager, he did not take his calls. More than 24 hours after this reporter sent him a text, he had not responded.

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