By Godfrey AKON
Residents of Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja, have cried out over alleged refusal of the developer, Prince and Princess Properties Limited, to process the issuance of their Certificates of Occupancy, C of Os, despite a window of opportunity provided by the FCT Administration.
Speaking at a Press Conference organized by Trustees, Elders and Residents of the estate on Friday in Abuja, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT, Amb. Mohammed Ibrahim, said some of the houses yet to be issued C of Os were acquired since 2003.
Ibrahim called on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyisom Wike, to intervene and compel the developer to meet the conditions to facilitate the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy to the house owners in the Estate, under the supervision of FCDA.
The erstwhile Nigerian Ambassador to Russia lamented that the developer’s refusal to process their C of Os left the interest of the house owners in jeopardy.
Prince and Princess Estate is one of the oldest gated residential communities in Abuja, valued at over N200 billion, with an estimated population of over 10,000 residents and about 1,500 residential accommodations.
According to Ibrahim, most of the residents of the estate have served Nigeria in different capacities including security services, public service and private sector, some of who have retired, while others are still in active service.
Ibrahim noted that the action of the developer violates the principle of owner-occupier, contained in the Development Lease Agreement even after fully paying for their houses for more than 15 years now.
He further laid allegations against those he described as “agents of the developer,” saying they were harassing residents of the estate and engaging in “neferious activities” in the community.
“We wish to bring to the attention of the FCT Minister and his administration; the police and other security services, as well as the Members of the National Assembly, the nefarious activities of the estate developers, known as Prince and Princess Properties Limited.
“We also want to report the various illegal activities and harassment of residents of the estate by the agents of Prince & Princess Properties Limited (the Developer); a property company owned by Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu; and to demand for urgent steps to address the situation,” he said.
He said the developer has continued to engage in “illegal and chaotic development” after more than 20 years of operation of the development lease agreement executed by the Developer with the FCDA and having exhausted the available land space covered in the development lease agreement.
According to him, the developer has continued to sell and allocate lands meant for support facilities, fire services station, police station, hospitals, and drainage passages) in the Estate.
“The space designated for fire service location is currently occupied by a structure that was not meant for the location. The Developer has continued to contravene the master plan for the Estate with threat to the interest of legitimate house-owners,” he said.
Ibrahim also alleged that the developer has continued to charge illegal levy on house-owners for any form of remodelling of their houses, thereby assuming the functions of Development Control Department of the FCDA.
“Over the years, the Developer has been harassing house-owners and residents with exorbitant rates for all forms of repairs and remodelling of houses without the knowledge of the Development Control Dept of the FCT.
He raised the alarm that the developer was obstructing the development of security in the estate there by endangering the lives of the residents.
He said the developer was trying to impose on the residents, a facility management company whose contract has expired and which has been identified to have contravened severally the terms of their contract with the Association.
He explained that “this development has resulted in two law suits filed by the developer and its agents, targeted at wrestling the administration of security, refuse disposal and provision of essential facilities for the Estate from the Association with the objective of causing breakdown of law and order.
According to him, the “developer has also been posing serious security threats to the residents of the Estate.
“The Association entered into a Security and Facility Management Agreement with Alpachyn Nigeria Limited, a company closely associated with the Developer and the Agreement expired on the 31st day of December, 2022.
“Before the expiration of the Agreement with the Company, there were series of contraventions and infractions of the terms of the Agreement by the company, some of which include lack of capacity to deploy the number of guards and personnel listed in the Agreement for which the company was receiving payment.
“This is apart from various nefarious activities such as receiving service charge payments from the residents without remittance into the Association’s account, among others.
“It was also discovered that the Company has been operating illegally as a security company without the required permit and licence by the relevant regulatory security agencies.
“These documents we demanded from the Executive Director of the Company – Mr. Chukwuemeka Alphonsus to validate his contract with the Association and none was provided.
“Following the expiration of the Agreement with Alpachyn Nigeria Limited, the Association, after competitive bidding for which Alpachyn Nigeria Limited was invited, we engaged a new security outfit to take over the security services for the Estate from 1st January, 2023.
“It is important to point out that Mr. Chukwuemeka Alphonsus in the name of his company – Alpachyn Nigeria Limited – filed a suit at the National Industrial Court in Suit No. NICN/ABJ/57/2023 – Alphacyn Nigeria Limited V. Registered Trustees of Prince & Princess Estate Residents Association to challenge the expiration of his service Agreement with the Association.
“In the Judgement delivered on the 21st of February, 2024, the suit was dismissed and the case was adjudged not to have merit.
“Despite this judgement, Alphacyn Nigeria Limited has refused to vacate his men from the gates of the Estate and has refused to hand-over the office space occupied by them.
“It is to our knowledge that the Executive Director of the Company – Mr. Chukwuemeka Alphonsus has been working with the support and leadership of Mr Daniel Nwokedi, claiming the Agreement cannot be said to have expired.
Consequently, they jointly locked up the Association’s offices while still keeping their security personnel in the Estate gates thus causing serious confusion and state of insecurity despite the judgement referred to above.
“Kindly be informed that there has been a Court of Appeal judgement in Suit No. CA/A/28/2011 which was not appealed against where the issues of ownership of houses in the Estate and the administration of the Estate were brought before the court for determination.
“The Court of Appeal found that the house-owners that have duly paid for their houses own the houses and that where the residents of an Estate have formed themselves into an Association, it was lawful for them to take charge of the administration of the security and facilities in the Estate for the benefit of the residents,” he said.
Ibrahim therefore called for implementation and enforcement of the terms of the Development Lease Agreement signed with the Developer which requires that the Estate be handed over to owner occupiers having fully sold to them after over 20 years of allocation of land to the Developer.
“It is important to state that for more than 15 years now this Association has been responsible for the provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities in the Estate, the responsibility of the Developer which they have actually ignored,” he said.
He also called for an inspection of the Estate by the relevant team from the FCDA to verify the various contraventions stated above towards a prompt action to prevent attendant negative consequences to the interest of residents in the Estate.
He further called on authorities to instruct the developer and its agents to evacuate their security personnel deployed to the estate gates to compete with the security services that the Association has legally procured to prevent security breach in the Estate.
Also speaking, President of the Resident Association, Dr Charles Agadu, lamented that the residents were being suppressed by the developer and its agents, calling on appropriate authorities to intervene and help the residents.
Agadu, who stressed the importance of service charge in meeting the needs of the estate, decried the failure of agents of the developer to pay service charge for over ten years.
Meanwhile, efforts by our correspondent to reach the developer for comments were not successful as his telephone lines were not reachable and he could not reply a text message sent to him.
