Nigeria's land fraud chain: how fake estates drain buyers' savings
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A Leadership investigation traces how agents, forgers and fake developers sell plots that do not exist or have been sold several times over, as regulators admit weak consumer protection.
Chinedu Mark paid N5.5 million for two plots in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, after being shown a fenced estate, a cream-painted gatehouse and a receipt stamped “PAID”. Six months later he returned with a construction supervisor to find the fence and gatehouse gone and the land belonging to another family, according to a Leadership investigation published on 17 October.
The newspaper reports that the pattern repeats across Lagos, Ogun and the outskirts of Abuja, where a network of agents, forgers, touts and fake developers sells land that does not exist or has already been sold multiple times. At a stakeholder workshop, the minister of Housing and Urban Development, Dr Muttaqha Rabe Darma, acknowledged that the sector faces regulatory weaknesses, fraudulent transactions and inadequate consumer protection. The ministry is proposing licensing for developers and estate agents plus escrow protection for buyers' funds, but the proposals have not been approved or implemented.
According to the investigation, the scheme typically starts with an online listing advertising plots at N800,000 to N1.5 million with drone photographs often lifted from genuine estates in Lekki. Prospective buyers are bused from Ajah, a caterpillar is hired for about N80,000 a day to clear bush and create the impression of work, and signboards are planted. In one building in Igando, the newspaper found five estate companies sharing a small office, the same receptionist and different letterheads, with a single printer producing documents.
Enforcement remains fragmented. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, through its head of media and publicity Dele Oyewale, urged affected investors to file formal petitions. The special adviser to the Lagos governor on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, said unregistered operators far outnumber the more than 1,000 practitioners registered with the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority. The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned that Property World Africa Network and PWAN Max were not registered to solicit investments, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission sealed PWAN Max's Lagos office in June 2026 over complaints about unallocated plots.
The collapse of an online platform called EMAAR in October 2025 left more than 4,000 investors unable to withdraw funds, the report adds. One Lagos-based computer engineer said he lost N1.828 million, while another investor, Precious Onayinka, said she invested N128,000 and received nothing. In April 2026 the EFCC arrested an Abuja property agent over an alleged N288 million estate fraud in Asokoro, and in August it arraigned three men and two companies over an alleged N23 million transaction involving a 2.2-hectare plot in Gosa.
Ayorinde Akinboyo, lead partner at Hill City Solicitors, attributed the spread of fraudulent operators to the absence of a unified national statute governing estate agency and urged buyers to verify titles, confirm approvals and seek legal advice before paying.