He Paid N5.5m For 2 Plots, 6 Months Later, The Estate Was Gone

By Bidon Mibzar, Abuja, and Kingsley Okoh, Lagos
Chinedu Mark paid N5.5 million for two plots in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. He was shown a fenced estate, a gatehouse painted cream and a receipt stamped “PAID.”
Six months later, he returned with a construction supervisor. The fence was gone. The gatehouse was gone. The land now belongs to another family, another subscriber. One land, multiple owners.
Mark is not alone. Across Lagos, Ogun and the outskirts of Abuja, a well-oiled network of agents, forgers, touts and fake developers is selling land that does not exist, or land that has been sold five times over. LEADERSHIP’s investigation reveals how the scam chain works.
The federal govern...