The deal was too sweet to be true, however many fell for it while and while some aggrieved persons have taken legal action, the media has unraveled what transpired between The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG Abuja, and its church members.
When Oluyemi Ojudu, a civil servant, registered for a housing scheme initiated by a parish in one of Nigeria’s largest Pentecostal churches, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, in Abuja, he thought it was the beginning of the end of paying exorbitant rent to landlords.
“It is the desire of everybody to be land owners. It is a dream of everyone in Abuja to have a place they can call their own and stop paying rent as tenants to landlords,” he told a media house.
Land and other properties in Abuja are perhaps the costliest in the country. Many workers, desirous of owning properties in the city or surrounding neighbourhoods, often take part in housing schemes which allow them to make payments in instalments over a period of time.
In 2009, the Excellent Men Fellowship, EMF, a group in the Resurrection Chapel Parish of the RCCG, Lugbe, Abuja where Mr Ojudu lived, announced it was starting its own property acquisition scheme for married men in the church.
The scheme was also thrown open to members of the RCCG from other parishes as long as they are given letters of introduction from their pastors.
Ordinarily, Mr. Ojudu who worshipped at another RCCG parish in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja, would have hesitated before subscribing to such property scheme due to the frequency at which people were being duped. But this was one his church was organising. The church couldn’t possibly defraud its members, he thought.
The scheme was a sweet deal. A 600-square metre, sqm, plot of land was valued at N1.5 million. Each subscriber was expected to pay an initial deposit of N250, 000 while remaining payment was spread over two years. Subscribers who pay up to N900,000 would have their plot allotted to them.
Apart from the N1.5 million for the land, beneficiaries were also expected to pay an additional N500,000 for infrastructural development in the estate after they might have started developing the plot allotted to them. Mr Ojudu said he made a contribution of N1,000,000 and was given a ‘subscriber file’ with number 0744. But seven years after he made the payment, he is yet to get his plot of land from the promoters of the scheme.
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