Subscribers of the Brains and Hammers City Estate, Life Camp, Abuja, have alleged fraud over the failure of the firm to allocate properties to them after they made full payments five years ago.
The company was expected to deliver 6,000 housing units to the subscribers after receiving full payment, according to the agreement they reached.
Documents obtained by LEADERSHIP showed that the project which was supposed to be delivered 18 months after payment has remained a mirage five years after.
According to the documents, the subscribers commenced payment in 2016 and completed it in 2018 but as at December 2022, the houses have not been delivered.
One of the subscribers who spoke to LEADERSHIP on the condition of anonymity, said he subscribed to a four-bedroom terrace duplex costing N16.8 million and made his last payment in 2018 but has neither been given the property nor his money refunded.
He said the management of Brains and Hammers has not been giving him updates on the status of work.
The subscriber said, “I first paid more than 50 per cent and completed it on January 9, 2018, but this is five years, I’m still paying rent because there is no house from the firm,” he said.
Another subscriber Zuwairat Asekome said she had completed her payment according to the stipulated stage payments but was yet to get her house five years after.
However, in a letter by the company’s secretary, Abubakar Sheidu dated December 9, 2022 to one of the subscribers, it blamed the delay on COVID-19 pandemic, hyperinflation and other challenges.
Sheidu said the federal government also failed to provide the needed infrastructure as earlier promised hence, the burden shifted onto the company.
The letter reads in part: “The management of Brains and Hammers Limited sincerely appreciate your continuous patronage and understanding We would like to apologise to you for the delay in the delivery of your unit.
“The delay has been as a result of various factors which include but are not limited to;
“The huge infrastructural undertaking by Brains and Hammers after the office of the SGF failed to deliver on the infrastructure on the project as promised, compelling the company to have to undertake the same at a very great expense.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent hyperinflation which has led to the skyrocketing prices of building materials which are worsening till date.”
“The very challenging nature and terrain of the project site which has led us into reclaiming vast portions of land which we are statutorily bound to allow a settlement period of two years minimum before construction and several other factors which were ad versed and which we could not possibly have foreseen or prevented its recurrence.”
Efforts to get an official statement from the company proved abortive as when this reporter called the company’s official phone line, it was dropped when he raised the issue.
The responder asked LEADERSHIP to come to the office for a response.
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