The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered four land title documents worth over one billion naira from criminal syndicates.

The title documents were falsified by a syndicate of land fraudsters in Abuja who allegedly forged the documents and deprived the lawful owners of their property.

EFCC’s investigators, working on actionable intelligence, rounded up the fraudsters and recovered the documents for the legitimate owners.

The four landed title documents were handed over to their owners by the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, on Tuesday at the cooperative headquarters of the commission, where he accused staff members of the FCT of conniving with the criminal syndicate to perpetrate the crime.

Four victims of the syndicates who regained their title documents from the EFCC are: Mr. Asinobi Emmanuel Ogbuefi, who regained the Certified True Copy (CTC) of his allocation on Plot 895 Kaura District, Abuja, valued at over N150 million; the family of the late Ambassador Joseph D. Daze regained the title document of Plot 714, Jahi District, Abuja, worth over N400 million; Mr. Nuhu Umar regained the CTC of allocation in respect of Plot 625, Guzape District, Abuja, worth over N200 million; and Mr. Omar Ali Bintawa regained the Right of Occupancy (RofO) for Plot 1167 Katampe Extension, Abuja, worth N250 million.

At the handing over of the documents to the victims,. Olukoyede noted that the recovery of the original title documents was a product of diligent investigation by operatives of the EFCC.

He particularly acknowledged the collaborative efforts of officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, drawn from FCT’s Department of Land Administration and Abuja Geographic Information System, AGIS.

“Our engagement this afternoon is a demonstration of our commitment to synergise and collaborate with the public as an agency to fight corruption and financial and economic crimes in Nigeria,” he said.

“We are here to let the public know that this commitment is working and that stakeholders are collaborating with us.

“We are here this afternoon to witness the handing over of title documents to victims of financial crimes in Nigeria. This has been going on for a while and we want the public to know that there is a need for us to work together as a nation and as a people to ensure that perpetrators of crimes do not get away with crime and the proceeds of their crimes.”

Speaking on the method of operation deployed in busting the criminal syndicate, Olukoyede disclosed that investigations led to the discovery of the syndicate of land fraudsters in the FCT “who are in the habit of forging documents and in the habit of conniving with some staff members of the FCT to perpetrate crime.

“This syndicate is in the habit of forging signatures of original allottees of land. Not only do they forge their signatures, they forge their means of identification and passports of the original allottees and go ahead and declare the original title documents of those lands missing,” he said.

“The moment they are declared missing, they, on their own, would reapply, forge the signature and identity of the original allottee, and get another title document from it.”
While regretting the situation, he assured that all land fraudsters in the FCT would be brought to book.