—Says critic sponsored to tarnish group’s image

By Kingsley Adegboye

The Managing Director, PWAN Plus, owners of Cedarwood Luxury Appartments and Terraces, Professor Julius Oyedemi, has debunked the claims made against the real estate company by an online real estate critic, Scott Iguma, tagging the company as lacking proper documentation but selling receipts.

The online critic had further sent warnings to clients and prospective customers about some of PWAN estates, alleging that a good number of the property owners may well be at risk of losing their property to the government or worse, as some of them had been mapped out by the government.

Speaking at a press conference, Professor (Amb.) Julius Oyedemi said, “Our attention has been drawn to a viral video publication by one Scott Iguma, on his social media account. In the said video, he claimed PWAN never made full payment for those estates, PWAN did not perfect their title, among other malicious claims.”

Speaking further, Oyedemi stated,”Cedarwood Park and Cedarwood Gardens were among the first set of estates introduced into the market and sold in 2017-18. The lands were duly charted and confirmed to be free from any government commitment and any known encumbrances prior to the acquisition of the lands and I have all documentations of both properties signed by all parties involved,” as he displayed the said documents to the press for authentication.

“I will not say, there are no challenges, as expected in any line of business, but we have a physical office and proper channels which are open to the public and particularly our clients to address their grievances if there are any.

“For instance, in cases where there are issues or the plot allocated was not to the satisfaction of our clients, we offer them a swap option, that is to move them to alternative plots. It is devilish to see a concerted effort to defame 13 years of hard work over verifiable yet unverified information just for social media clout.

“We are not fraudsters. And as a responsible and law-abiding organization, this press interaction is necessary to debunk these false allegations and assuage our clients, realtors and the public.

‎”In law, Scott Iguma is best treated as a tainted witness and we are putting him to the strictest proof of his claims that PWAN PLUS did not finish payment for Cedarwood Gardens and Park, and the source of his information. Our legal representatives will be escalating Scott Iguma’s defamatory statement to the appropriate law enforcement and judicial authorities for necessary intervention”, he said.

Responding to questions, Oyedemi pointed out that there is no business without challenges, he said “Certainly, there will be aggrieved clients. But the question is, does PWAN have an intention to solve the problem? Yes.

“If PWAN doesn’t have the intention, we’ll be out of the market by now. So, the truth is, the man made claims without facts or evidence. If they are ring, now I want to tell you the truth. By the time we come out from the press, I’m coming out again. By the time we come out, you will see that many of those things he claimed are not true.

“Because like I said, you need to understand the nitty-gritty of our business. Somebody can show receipts. But there are many things behind receipts that he is not showing you. There are customers that fail to fulfill their obligations. And maybe they are denied allocation, and they take that as a yardstick to go to social media.

“Whereas, you signed a pre-contract form. The business you do is black and white. Before we treat your money, you must attest that you agree with everything. I’m not saying that there are no cases where we’ve not also defaulted. And like I said in my press briefing, I said there are customers who refused to be swapped. They’ve asked for their full refund of their money.

“And we’re giving them as the cases come up. This is part of the business. The business is not 100 percent clean. We will pay. We will learn. You get that? So, what I’m saying is that, for us, coming out to start talking is better we talk with evidence.

“I won’t allow any of my directors to go out there and mess up himself. If, with all I have, you have it here on the table, you can stand there and see. If he says we don’t fully pay, what is deed of assignment and transfer of ownership?”

According to Professor Oyedemi, “It’s not true that this is the first time we are coming out to talk about this matter. If you go online, you will see some videos. There is a video that was made by the founding chairman of the group some weeks ago. He made that online. Go to some very important pages on social media. You will see that video there. Where he appreciated our clients. Thanked them for their loyalty over the years.

“And he also acknowledged that there are one or two challenges in one or two of our estates. What you need to know is that for every two or three estates that we have challenged, as it were, there’s over 30 or 40 that are navigated. You understand? And for those two or three or four that have challenges, like the acting GMB has said, the clients were properly communicated.

“Because sometimes encumbrances occur in real estate transactions. When it occurs, what happens is… What is more important is how do you go about solving it. There are some clients that will say okay when you communicate with them. They will tell you it’s okay, we can wait until you sort it out.

“Some will say no, saying If you have another adjoining estate, you can allocate to us. You understand? So many have been reallocated to other estates, which is what we have been doing over the years. So, it is quite bad that somebody who has never stepped his feet into this organization to find out what is happening, will start making spurious allegations. Before you do that, you must have come with what you have to the office and say, okay, this is what I brought and they denied me or they said they don’t know me.

“For him to go online to start talking against the company, it portrays a situation where we are saying that he has been sponsored to tarnish the image of the company. Scott Iguma has been sponsored to tarnish the image of a real estate brand that has been built for 13 good years.

“For him to come out and say a company is selling receipts instead of land, you just heard the GMD mention when he was talking that he’s living in his own estate. And people are going to go there for fact-finding to see clients who have subscribed in some of our estates over the years, who are living in those estates with their children, their wives, their husbands, their families, living their everyday life in peace without any encumbrance. So, we are suspecting that he has been sponsored to tarnish the image of the PWAN Group.

“And that is why we are exploring all legal means possible to ensure that he comes and prove it in the law court how PWAN only sells receipts. So, he’s going to prove it, because he that alleges must prove. Because no matter how high life flies, the truth will always shoot it down.

I repeat again, no matter how high life flies, the truth will always shoot it down. The truth is that PWAN Group is a reputable organization that has done business for 13 years.

“Have there been challenges? Yes. Anybody who has been in real estate business long enough will tell you that sometimes problems come up. You may have gone for a land purchase, purchased the land, paid for the land, you moved in. All it takes for you to have issues is just one person. Maybe from the vendor’s family to just come out and say, they did not get the money to me, and the issue starts. But when those issues start, we communicate to our clients and then we take steps to take them to adjoining estates,” Oyedemi explained.