‘Real estate cabals sabotage signing into law a bill to control rent’

The Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Capital Territory, Senator Smart Adeyemi has expressed regret and disappointment over the doggedness with which cabals within real estate industry sabotage the signing into law a bill to control rent.

He said the bill, pending before President Jonathan for assent, was meant to do the nation good.

While speaking Wednesday immediately after plenary session with National Assembly correspondents, he recalled that immediately his Committee started work on a bill to regulate rents of properties in Abuja and other allied matters, he discovered that some stakeholders in the industry became indisposed to the bill and that before he know it, they began blocking the passage of that bill.

He added that at a point, the committee under his leadership had to devise a way of out-smarting them in the interest of the nation.

He noted that after much ado, the bill was passed, only for it to be denied assent by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Narrating reasons for their action, Adeyemi said, “these cabals in the guise of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria saw the bill as a threat to their interest so that they can continue with spurious charges in order to recoup their financial investment in the industry.

“You know right now as we speak, anybody can charge any amount as rents and that is why you see so much houses constructed for a long time and there is nobody occupying it and also there is no effective property tax to generate income to the government in form of internally generated revenue”, he said.

He regretted that so much revenue that would have come into government treasury had been denied.

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