Landlord harasses OAU Student, threatens her with tout on Valentine's day

Few minutes after 10pm on February 14th, 2022, the PRO of Great Ife saw a message on the WhatsApp page of the Students Representative Council of Great Ife that some ladies/students were been threatened by the landlord in conjunction with a particular security guard over an issue and that they had been locked  up in their room and they were suffocating.

    

The SU PRO had to take a step of action and he called another comrade, Oluwanoni, the Sport Director and upon getting there, the lady recounted what happened and narrated that she had paid for the electricity in the rented apartment as at February 2021 and the agreement was #12,000 per year. It was a one time payment which she had already made but she said the landlord is requesting extra charges,  #1000 for last month (January)and another #1000 for February.

She insisted that she won't be paying again because she had an agreement with the landlord and because of this disagreement over unpaid NEPA bill, the lady was locked up in her room without light and she was suffocating with her friend in the room. 

The Union's PRO had to go and meet her by the window and listened to her side of the story then,  collected the landlord' contact from her and dialled his number 5 times but, he did not pick up. Eventually, the landlord had to come out and the Great Ife Students' Union Representatives introduced themselves to him, the moment he heard they are Students Union, the landlord flared thinking that the Students Union were there to fight him without listening to his side of the own story.

The main reason why the Students' Union Representatives were looking for the landlord was to hear his own side of his story and intervene. The family of the landlord came out and started harassing the Union's representatives. Some of them held the PRO by his clothes and were about to beat them up. The landlord ordered them out of his compound and they obeyed.

As this was going on, the other comrades of Students' Union rallied round those present to help them and the whole matter intensified. The Union's Representatives demanded that the ladies  that were  locked up be released and  they were released by the landlord.

According to the PRO of the Union, the issue has not been resolved completely because there is still a disagreement over electricity bill.

ACCOUNT OF THE LADY 

According to her, she lamented over Ife Landlords generally and said she does not know what is wrong with them. She said, her bill was supposed to be due by the end of February 2022.

The Landlord increased the house rent from #160,000 to #185,000 with unnecessary NEPA bill amounting to #200,000 in total. NEPA agent came to their house in early hours of the morning on February 14th, 2022 and noticed that the apartment light was bypassed and they questioned the landlord for this and the landlord said he has gotten a meter which he never did but rather he was extorting money from the students.

NEPA had to cut off her light and when she got back home on February 14th 2022, she noticed that there was no light in her room and as a result of this, she went to complain to the landlord but rather the landlord started shouting and cursing her. He said she was mad and that there was nothing she could do to him.

Upon hearing what was going on, the landlord's children came out to threaten the lady by saying they will call touts to beat her up and, she won't sleep in her room that very night.

 Immediately she entered the room with her friend, the landlord used padlock to lock both of them inside and the tout who was called by the landlord's children  began to bang on the tenant door with a matchet. This was why she reached  out to the Students' Union and they stepped into action.

Adebayo Joshua