By Omoyeni Ojeifo
In the sprawling, overcrowded streets of Lagos, a quiet crime is reaching an epidemic scale: the organized exploitation of desperate house hunters.
Behind the facade of the nation’s economic hub, a syndicate of unscrupulous landlords and predatory agents has perfected a cruel hustle—repeatedly “renting” the same single apartment to dozens of unsuspecting victims.
Persecondnews correspondent Omoyeni Ojeifo delves into this underworld of rental fraud.
When Faith Praise Akpan handed over N750,000 for a Lagos apartment in June 2025, she thought she had finally conquered the city’s cutthroat housing market.
Her landlord, Mr. Femi Olarenwaju, set her move-in date for July. But when she arrived, her dream of a new home dissolved into a nightmare.
“There were about 15 of us who had all paid for that same apartment,” Akpan told Persecondnews.
Her story is a single thread in a disturbing tapestry of fraud. Over the past 18 months, at least four major syndicates have been uncovered across Lagos, with landlords and agents fleecing between 13 and 50 tenants for the exact same unit.
It is a brazen, recurring crime that victims claim thrives under the nose of indifferent law enforcement.
The Scam Pattern
The deception follows a predictable script: a landlord advertises units in a building conveniently “under renovation.” Desperate to beat the competition, tenants pay a year’s rent upfront, only to find a crowd of strangers on moving day—all holding receipts for the same front door.
For Akpan, the reality was worse than confusion. The building located on Ganiyu Sogunle Street, Ire-Akari Estate, Isolo, within Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State, was incomplete when she finally accessed it.
“There was no ceiling, no windows; there was no net, no burglar proof, nothing,” she said.
Desperate for a roof over her head, she was forced to finish the construction herself, installing her own windows and ceiling just to make the space habitable.
The Human Toll
The financial devastation is staggering. Uduak Ogbuehi, who paid N1.5 million for a two-bedroom unit, is now trapped in a cycle of debt, still servicing the workplace loan she used for the payment. “There were at least 15 of us,” she lamented.
Bright Eze faced a different shock: after paying N850,000, he arrived to find his apartment already occupied by another tenant.
The trauma of such fraud lingers long after the money is gone; Mariam Zakari, a previous victim of a similar syndicate, noted that the emotional scars are often as deep as the financial ruins.
“I almost ran mad. If not for my parents and siblings, I don’t think I would have survived it. I used all my savings,” she said.
She added that she paid about N3 million to a landlord in an earlier incident and was only able to recover part of the money after prolonged efforts.
“Till today, na story I dey hear,” she added, describing the lack of closure and lingering uncertainty surrounding her case.
The exploitation isn’t limited to “renovation” scams; it extends to blatant security negligence.
One renter, Akinsola Ola, paid N2.8 million for a Gbagada room and living room self-contained apartment—including a N400,000 unreceipted agent’s fee—only to find the unit lacked basic burglar proofing on the door. The landlord had declined to provide the iron fabricated proof.
When he demanded a refund, the landlord returned only N2.4 million, claiming the agent had already vanished with the balance.
For many, like him, the loss isn’t just financial; the ordeal has left deep emotional and psychological scars.
A Growing Crisis of Impunity
The scale of the fraud is staggering. In April 2026, a viral video exposed a landlord on Camber Street, Lagos Island, who allegedly fleeced 50 people for a single one-room unit.
Just two months earlier, in February, police in Ajah detained a woman who had allegedly impersonated a landlord to swindle N35 million from 13 different tenants for the same four-bedroom duplex.
The Industry’s Defence
While the Association of Estate Agents in Lagos State remained unreachable for comment, some within the industry point to a collapsing economy as the catalyst.
An agent Foster Adepoju attributed the surge in both prices and fraud to runaway inflation and the skyrocketing cost of construction materials, which he claims has pushed many to criminal desperation.
He said landlords now operate in a harsh economic environment where prices of cement, iron rods, labour, and land acquisition have increased significantly.
When asked why older buildings still attract high rents similar to newer properties, he argued that there is “no old market” in real estate pricing.
Adepoju notes that agents and landlords buy materials and services at current market rates, making it impossible to rely on outdated rental pricing.
He added that in today’s economy, “collecting old price cannot work,” as maintenance and construction costs continue to rise.
LASRERA Explains the Crisis
Speaking exclusively to Persecondnews, a member of the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA), Gbenga Ajibade, explained why rental scams persist despite repeated warnings and regulations.
He mentioned that desperation for accommodation, poor verification culture, and the activities of unregistered agents remain major driving factors.
“A lot of people are desperate to secure accommodation quickly. Once they hear that an apartment is available, they rush to pay out of fear that somebody else will take it,” Ajibade said.
The official also noted that many victims fail to verify ownership documents, property status, or the legitimacy of agents before making payments.
Fraudulent operators, he warned, take advantage of the pressure within Lagos’ housing market by creating urgency and presenting seemingly legitimate agreements.
“Anybody can wake up and call themselves an agent. That is part of the problem. People need to verify who they are dealing with before paying money,” he added.
However, when asked why LASRERA’s own mediation in the Olarenwaju case failed with the landlord refusing to attend scheduled meetings, Ajibade declined to comment further, stating only that “the right thing would be done.”
What LASRERA Says It Has Achieved
During the Lagos State 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing at Alausa, Ikeja, the Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, presented the agency’s official record.
According to her, LASRERA has handled 1,899 complaints related to real estate transactions since its inception. Out of this, 1,580 cases were mediated, with 1,243 successfully resolved.
She also stated that the agency has recovered N295.5 million and 20 properties on behalf of aggrieved residents.
“Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) remains a core part of our work,” Odunuga-Bakare said, adding: “We try to resolve issues before they escalate.”
Of the remaining files, 23 are stuck in mediation, 147 were abandoned due to lack of cooperation, and 172 were shuffled to other government agencies.
Only eight cases have reached the courtroom—spread thin across the Federal High Court, the Lagos State High Court, and Magistrate courts.
The Wall of Silence
Despite victims providing a mountain of evidence—bank receipts, witness statements, and reports of threats—the results remain the same: zero arrests and zero refunds.
The landlord at the centre of the latest scandal, Mr. Femi Olarenwaju, has simply ignored mediation summons from the very agency meant to protect the public.
This systemic failure demands transparency. The Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) must disclose the total volume of multiple-tenancy fraud reported over the last two years and explain why its mediation process has stalled in the Olarenwaju case.
Simultaneously, the Lagos State Police Command must answer for its silence – Has a formal investigation even begun? Why are victims, who paid for police reports, being left in the dark?
Finally, the Ministry of Justice must answer a fundamental question: Has any landlord in Lagos ever been prosecuted for this crime? If the answer is no, the state is effectively handing fraudsters a license to operate.
Persecondnews reports that until these questions are answered, Lagosians remain defenseless in a market where desperation is met with cold-blooded deception.
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