A man who claimed to be a landlord around the central part of Freetown has reportedly run away after collecting over 200 million leones from 26 different tenants for a single apartment.

The people involved said the “landlord” collected different amounts from them and gave them receipts through an agent and run away without handing over the said apartment.
The agent who aided the landlord in the fraud later informed the affected persons that the landlord is dead, but it all seemed fraudulent.

Speaking to SLBC, the affected tenants expressed deep doubt about the death of the so-called landlord.
“We did not see any corpse. The guy is not in the house. When we get to the house, we cannon even suspect anything that proves somebody had died in the house”, they said in chorus when asked whether the supposed dead landlord has been buried.

They further alleged that some family members of the landlord expressed knowing that the people affected were being lured into the fraud, but they could not disclose it for fear of not being caught by the swear words the landlord had exclaimed against anyone who attempts to let out his deceitful act.

” We need justice! We need justice! We need justice!” the affected persons chanted as they converged to seek help from lawyers at legal links’ office.

One of the persons involved laments her experience, saying she just receives a voice message from one of the agents that lured her into paying for the apartment and telling her the landlord who collected her money to hand her the apartment had died.
She said, the agent also asked whether she still has the receipt she received from the landlord, threatening her that only those with the receipt will have the single apartment.

But what the woman did not know was that there are 25 other tenants apart from her that have paid and were also waiting to be handed the apartment.

Baffled by the voice note, the woman retorted to the agent asking why the agent had to send her such a message for a place she had paid for, the agent replied they are plenty. She ran to the said place the next day.

“On Sunday after service, I visited the house. I met everyone saying we have paid our monies! We have paid our monies”.
“On Monday, the same agent took me to another place, but since I am a woman, I was unable to grab him”, she lamented.

Lawyer Rashid Dumbuya, Executive Director Legal Link described the act as corruption and fraud perpetrated by certain joint criminal enterprises.

While the tenants converged at his office to seek help, Lawyer Dumbuya told the press ” I am here today with a cross-section of affected tenants who gave monies to a certain landlord who claimed to have a property in the central part of Freetown. This is the outcome.
Over 26 of them, the landlord eventually through agents collected over 20 million Leones.
As it is now, we don’t even know the fate of this landlord. People are claiming he is dead. Some say he has run away. See the problem he has left with these young people. They came to us to fight for them in this corruption and fraud perpetrated on them by a certain joint criminal enterprise.