People who have been fooled into buying lands and houses are being urged to help the police successfully prosecute the fraudsters by providing statements to the investigating ranks.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal told the News Room recently that the ministry has received several complaints of such fraudulent deals and even though the cases are passed on to the police, the aggrieved parties have not provided the sleuths with statements.
“This is a challenge…for the police to prosecute, then they have to get written statements from persons who are willing to provide these so that they can prosecute.
“There are two recent cases that we have handed over to them (the police) but they could not advance on the matters simply because they need the statements from persons who have been robbed and duped,” Minister Croal told the News Room.
He is encouraging people to “do the right thing” and not fall prey to fraudsters.
“I want to encourage persons to do the right thing. When you’re making payments or being approached by anyone…I’ve even had complaints about people approaching to sell lands, using officers’ names and ministers’ names etc.”
He reminded that all matters relating to lands and houses can only be addressed via the Central Housing and Planning Authority and its regional offices.
“So we know some of these things take place, we get complaints from time to time. From our end, once we get those, we try to put pictures, we debar such persons from entering our facilities etc.
“But then we want to go the extra mile, we want to prosecute people but in order to do that, we’re asking for persons who have been approached, persons who are willing, to provide such statements. We’re asking for their support in this regard,” the Housing Minister contended.
