By Maduka Nweke
A fierce legal battle is brewing between real estate giant, PWAN Plus Business Concerns Limited and Scott Iguma, a popular social media content creator and property enthusiast, over what the firm called spurious and defamatory allegations designed to damage its brand.
Background
Trouble erupted months ago when Iguma, leveraging his Facebook platform, alleged in viral videos that PWAN was selling receipts instead of lands as many Nigerians have come forward with proof of land purchase (receipts) but were never allocated the land nor refunded.
Iguma further alleged that the PWAN management has been defiant and insensitive in their handling of the matter as many victims, now feeling scammed, have clung to endless promises with no fulfilment date.
He vowed to amplify the hushed voices of the victims by tirelessly calling out PWAN, saying his action is a movement fueled primarily by the need to secure justice for those affected and not a clickbait to attract social media traffic.
However, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer PWAN Plus Business Concerns Ltd, owners of all Cedarwood Estates, Prof. Julius Oyedemi, has vehemently denied the allegations of fraud and said that the company was strongly considering legal action to protect its reputation.
PWAN’s story
At a recent press conference by the company at its Corporate Headquarters in Lekki, Oyedemi said that Cedarwood Park (200 plots) and Cedarwood Gardens (300 plots) were among the first set of estates introduced into the market and sold from 2017-2018 by the company.
The MD/CEO noted that prior to the acquisition, the lands were duly charted and confirmed to be free from any government acquisition/commitment or any known encumbrances.
“The indigenous owners of the lands, Olorunishola and Alonge families respectively were indeed fully paid for the lands and each executed a deed of assignment and Form 1C (Application for Approval of a Subsequent Transaction to a Grant of Right of Occupancy) as far back as 2017/2018 by their duly accredited representatives.
“The individual families had also applied for Village Excision which at that time under the immediate past administration in Lagos State was a valid way of securing title on family or communal lands. The file numbers for those applications for excision were clearly communicated in our pre-contract agreement (Subscription Form & Frequently Asked Questions) which every subscriber had the opportunity to read and sign before making purchase & payment.
“However, upon the coming on board of the new administration, Excision applications were suspended and the government came up with government allocation in private developers’ schemes. Hence, Cedarwood Park and Gardens were mapped out by the government amongst other neighbouring properties in the Idera Private Developers’ Scheme. The cost of re-acquiring the lands (which had already been fully paid for, fenced and massively sand filled for a stretch of over 1km because the lands are water-logged) far exceeded the purchase and selling price of the land hence our inability to make any meaningful progress with the process.
“As a company whose foundation is built on the core values of accountability, responsibility, integrity, service and excellence, we had prior to this situation communicated to subscribers and realtors about the need to effect swaps to neighbouring estates in line with the indemnity clause in our contract of sales, due to the wet topography of the estate and the cost intensive sand filling which was a much- needed prerequisite for physical allocation. The sand filling was necessary to conduct external and internal access to the estates, “he explained.
Odeyemi further stated that prior to this time; more than 50 per cent of subscribers in both estates had been allocated in line with the sand filling milestones and had been issued individual survey plans and deeds of assignments.
“This is contrary to the false claims that PWAN only sells receipts. A simple check of our subscription form will reveal that PWAN PLUS issues deeds of assignment and survey plans to individual subscribers with which they can subsequently obtain Governor’s Consent.
“As of today, more than 75 per cent of subscribers in the two estates have either been swapped to better locations in the circumference of Cedarwood Park & amp; Gardens or in the case of their rejection of the swap offer, they have been refunded the full amount they paid for the land. Some of the subscribers we swapped under this arrangement have commenced building in the locations they were reallocated to.
“We hereby would like to mention to the discerning public that Scott is not the Spokesman of PWAN PLUS and did not at any time reach out to us for a balanced, objective and dispassionate view of the issues he raised.
“He just went berserk with half-truths and even blatant misrepresentations on matters he knows little or nothing about. From the inception of PWAN PLUS in 2017, we have been focused on timely allocation of plots and development of our estates with many proofs on our Youtube channel (@realpwanplus).
“Within 2023-2025 alone, 2304 clients were allocated to a total of 4,234 plots across our estates in Lagos, Asaba, Aba and Owerri. Over 10,000 plots were allocated between 2017-2022 to an average of 6,000 subscribers with proper legal documentation issued to subscribers and the estate’s titles undergoing various stages of perfection.
“All our estates are fully paid for with some of them having Certificates of Occupancy and Governor’s Consent, and it is incorrect to state that PWAN PLUS does not pay for its lands or perfect title, “he said.
In his contribution, Group Executive Director Sales at PWAN, Mr. Chinedu Ezenwa, noted that there is no business without challenges. According to him, the vision of PWAN Group is to empower as many Nigerians as possible by making home ownership to be reality.
“I want to say it openly that PWAN feeds above 1,000 people. It has taken more than 1,000 people out of the street and ready to do more. If Mr. Scott Iguma is paid by someone to demarket PWAN, I think he has failed”, he said.
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