Olusegun Ariyo
Veteran Nollywood actor Patrick Doyle has claimed that the real estate industry has become a front for financial crimes in Nigeria.
He alleged that real estate is the leading form of money laundering in the country.
He made the allegations in a recent interview on Echo Room, hosted by Quincy Jones.
Doyle said, “If you go to Abuja and many estates in the Lekki corridor, you will see plenty of houses completed and uninhabited. So, if it’s the prices that are too high, how come people are still building and they are not being occupied? That should tell you something.
“It’s funny because real estate has become one of the leading forms of money laundering. A lot of it is illegal money finding expression in the construction industry.
“It’s artificial. It beats my imagination how we have so many uncompleted buildings in a place where there is a shortage of housing for people. But there are a lot of empty estates. Go to Abuja, it’s crazy.
“That only tells you that people are just using money that has been stolen to store up value, hoping that one day they will sell. Didn’t you hear about the man who has about 7,000 apartments in one estate in Abuja? It’s better to use the money to build something than to store it in the house where rats are.”
