Christopher Oji
The last may not have been heard on the recent allegation of N8billion fraud levelled against the management of 1004 Estate Home Owners and Residents Association (HORA) in Lagos by the leadership of the Community Development Association (CDA) in the same Estate.
At a press conference held recently p by CDA officials led by Mr. Matthew Ibadin, it was alleged among other things that over N8billion had so far been collected by HORA exco currently led by Barrister Lara Ademola; without accountability to the residents. Cases of monumental fraud were alleged against the Estate managers.
The conference was obviously prompted by an earlier one organised by the HORA leadership during which appeal was made to President Muhammadu Buhari and other well meaning Nigerians to save them from what they described as terror unleashed by those they called electricity thieves in the Estate. The CDA chairman, Ibadin was mentioned as being the leader of the group allegedly aided by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Bar Beach Police State, Isah Lawal; a Chief Superintendent of Police.
Reacting to the multi billion naira fraud allegation, the HORA Acting Chairman, Ademola told journalists in an interview at the weekend that the allegation was not only unfounded but faulty in every respect as the Estate has not generated such money under her leadership nor Exco that had existed before her tenure.
Giving an account of income generation and expenditure in the Estate, Ademola said each flat resident currently pays an annual service charge of N626,000 as against N650,000 alleged by the CDA officials and the Estate currently has a total of 1074 flats. By calculation if every apartment pays, a total of N672,324, 000 would be realised.
She however disclosed that only 85% of the residents pay the annual service charge which amounts to a little above N570million as the annual income from that source. According to her, the remaining 15% are those who default in paying their service charge.