Seven Nigerians have told FIJ how Mubarak Abuche Musa, the Chief Executive Officer of Almubee Group and former Kogi State governorship aspirant, took N153 million and refused to allocate the plots of land he agreed to offer them in the Wuye area of Abuja.

It’s been over 10 months since Musa, better known as Ojemanyareju and Emperor Almubee, took their money away. In this period, Musa has aspired and failed to become the Governor of Kogi State through the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), having contested to be the party candidate in the 2023 election.

When Ilerioluwa Aloba, the popular musician also known as Mohbad, died under mysterious circumstances in September, blogs reported that Musa donated millions to Mohbad’s wife. He had not returned a kobo from his clients’ N153 million down payment for their plots of land.

“A coworker of mine introduced me to the property and asked me if I was interested. Then, it was going for about N35 million, and I made a N20 million down payment,” Abel Tama (not real name) told FIJ on Monday.

“I also paid him an additional N140,000 for documents such as the survey plan. I actually stay around the area where the land was. So, one of the days I was passing by, I saw that the building control agency was demolishing some buildings. I went there and asked them what they were doing. It was then they told me that the man (Musa) did not have the right to sell land in that area.

“He claimed that he owned the land and took our money for pieces of land that he had no approval for. The documents he used to sell the land did not correspond with the actual location he claimed he wanted to sell to us. We have tried to reach him several times, but he is not reachable. Basically, he defrauded us.”

Tama said that he never met Musa but spoke to him on the phone when he sought to recover his money. He and other clients told FIJ that they mostly dealt with John Egbunu Ogbaje, Musa’s accountant at the Almubee Group, directly.

The clients paid into Almubee Group’s company bank account. Tama said that at least two other coworkers of his also fell victim to Musa’s real estate scheme.

“I had contacted one Prince Usen on March 5, 2023. I saw a building that I liked on Jiji because I was looking for landed property, specifically estate lands. The one that I saw and liked wasn’t available. He then told me that there was something available in Wuye, and I was interested because I stay in Wuye,” Kokumo Wade (not real name), another Almubee client, explained to FIJ this month.

“I asked him to let me see it. They seemed to be estate agents, but I don’t know to what extent they were working with Almubee. He advertised that place and said that, for terrace units, 250 sq m was going for N25 million, while a 450 sq m detached duplex was going for N40 million. There were other locations that I wasn’t interested in. I did my due diligence and went to check the authenticity of the property he sent to me. They looked in the system and saw that the property existed.

“But there was a mismatch. I didn’t see anything Almubee on it. It seemed odd, but I proceeded and made a million-naira payment to signify interest. At that time, I called a friend who was also a colleague. We drove down to the location with a third friend. They were interested but grew suspicious of Almubee when they did further checks on the landed property in that area. At that point, I began to lose interest.

“I had made another commitment of N6 million. All I paid for this landed property was N7 million. My two friends paid more money than I did before we confirmed there was a problem. Theirs was on 450 sq m of land, while mine was on 250 sq m of land. I made my first payment on March 22, the second payment was on April 3, and I balanced it all on April 5: N1 million, N5 million and N1 million, respectively.

“I got an offer letter indicating the amount I was to pay, the location and the block number of my land. John Ogbaje received the first payment. He is the account officer. When I made that payment, I wasn’t comfortable with paying into a personal account. He gave us the idea that we had to pay quickly so that he could help us secure a spot. It was later on that I requested the account of the company, Emperor City Integrated Limited, where I paid the following N5 million and N1 million deposits.”

Others shared similar experiences of Almubee offering them plots of land in the same Wuye area only to part with their money and get no land or refund.

S.M Nwosu & Company Guardian Chambers, the legal representative of the clients FIJ spoke with, wrote a letter to the Almubee Group in January.

“We are briefed and instructed by our Clients to write you concerning seven (7) distinct plots of land in your Emperor Palm Jumeirah Phase III Estate situate [sic] at Plot 1039, Cadastral Zone B03, Wuye, Abuja, which you sold to our clients in 2023 and in respect of which they made part-payments to you with the agreement that full payment would be made upon physical allocation of their individual plots,” the letter read in part.

“We are further informed that you offered these plots to our Clients for residential purposes – specifically to construct 5-Bedroom Terrace Duplexes in accordance with the building plan approved for the estate by relevant authorities.

“It is our Clients’ complaint that around the time which you fixed for the allocation of their respective plots, officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority entered upon and demolished the entire Emperor Palm Jumeirah Phase III Estate owing to numerous infractions purportedly committed by your company including, but not limited to, your failure to obtain any approved building plans for the Estate from the relevant authorities.

“The implication of this is that you have, till date, not demarcated or allocated any plots to the subscribers of the Estate, who have made payments to you and are now extremely aggrieved and worried about the loss of their resources. Their funds have remained in your possession for months with nothing to show for it.

“Our Clients have made their enquiries at the Federal Capital Development Authority and said enquiries revealed that you are nowhere close to rectifying your problems with the relevant authorities, and there is therefore no hope of our client getting their allocations anytime in the near future.

“We therefore demand, on behalf of our Clients, a full and immediate refund of all payments received from our clients pursuant to the acquisition of these parcels of land. These payments sum up to a total amount of N153,300,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty-Three Million Naira Only).”

Musa and the Almubee Group failed to accede to their demand for a refund within their stipulated 7-day deadline.

FIJ saw that there were more victims outside the seven who paid for different plots of land in the Emperor Palm Jumeirah Phase III Estate in 2023. None of them has been physically allocated a single plot of land by Almubee Group, despite the huge sums of money parted with.

Musa promised to give some of them a refund in November, but that never happened. He has since gone incommunicado.

The physical Almubee Group office has been vacated. Clients told FIJ that they met closed premises with more law petitions plastered on the gates.

FIJ made several phone calls to Musa’s three phone numbers. Two phone numbers were switched off, while the receiver on the third phone line said that we got the wrong number.

Musa and the Almubee Group were yet to respond to the messages sent to them via their social media pages at press time.

FIJ sent a mail to Musa’s legal representative, but they had not replied at press time either.