Ambassage Properties, a real estate company that owns Oakwood Park in Ogun State, has refused to grant Abuja resident Emmanuel Ayodele (not real name) access to the land he purchased for N1.5 million in 2013, without reason.
In 2013, Tosin Fakusi, an agent of Ambassage Properties Limited at the time, spoke to Ayodele and marketed a piece of land at Shimawa in Ogun.
Ayodele had made a total payment of N1,520,000 over ten months by the end of 2013.
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He was then given a provisional Deed of Assignment in 2014.
(Pages from the 2014 Provisional Deed for Ayodele)
When it was time to take possession of the land, Ambassage Properties could not provide it. Ayodele told FIJ that the land he was allocated was unfit for development, and he had complained about it, so Ambassage Properties promised to assign him another property.
After a long while of making promises and excuses, Ayodele was finally assigned another property around the same area via a letter of allocation on August 17, 2018.
Ambassage then executed another Deed of Assignment on February 25, 2020, six years after Ayodele’s payment.
(Pages from the 2020 Deed of Assigment to Ayodele)
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“I was hoping that by the time development comes up in the area, I would move in and begin to develop my own property, so I reached out to them to show me where my land allocation was,” Ayodele told FIJ.
However, from 2020 to date, Ambassage Properties has denied Ayodele access to his land.
“They’ve been giving excuses. Come here, meet us there. I’m no longer based in Lagos, I’ve sent people and lawyers to meet them, spending money and trying to have patience instead of going to the police station, but they were not forthcoming,” he explained.
Ayodele told FIJ that at a point, Ambassage Properties claimed that the land could not be granted to him because of the presence of ‘omo onile’, who needed to be ‘settled’, and asked him to pay N150,000 to deal with them. He agreed to do so, but after a week Ambassage Properties told him that it couldn’t be done anymore.
Ayodele has made several pleas. He has spoken with lawyers and reported the matter to the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but there has been no intervention. No concrete efforts have been made to grant him access to his land by Ambassage Properties.
“Right now, they’re avoiding me. I’ve tried to reach out and no one is responding to me. I don’t have the funds for court procedures,” he said. “This feels traumatising, and I’m led to believe that they are fraudulent.”
When FIJ called Emmanuel Odemayowa, the CEO of Ambassage Properties, on Thursday, he did not answer the phone calls.
On Thursday, when FIJ called Samuel Sayepe, the Managing Director of Ambassage Properties, he said that efforts were being made to restore Ayodele’s land. He also said that Ambassage Properties has been exchanging correspondence and made an offer, and promised to provide evidence.
“[Ayodele] is aware we have some little issues with the land,” Sayepe wrote in a text.
“I can assure the issues have been resolved and we just need our surveyor to work and map out again. We will make his land available on or before Friday, August 22nd.”
Ayodele told FIJ that Ambassage had been giving him the same assurances for over ten years.
Ambassage Properties does not have a working official website, and Ayodele claimed that he had received updates of their name change to The Sage Homes and Cavalli Properties.
The post Ambassage Properties Yet to Produce Suitable Land 12 Years After Abuja Resident Paid N1.5m appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.