The FCT chapter of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) says drug barons and money launderers only use the real estate sector as a cover-up.

The chapter’s chairman, Osilama Emmanuel Osilama, during the inauguration, said this in Abuja at the weekend during the inauguration of the 10-member disciplinary committee set up to sanitize the sector.

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had said last week that the EFCC was vigorously going after real estates in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt as 90 to 100 percent of stolen public funds were used for the procurement of houses and lands.

But Osilama said: “Some of these criminals are drug barons and also money launderers who use the sector as a cover-up. As result of this, they cannot come up to be registered with REDAN because they know they will be noticed easily, exposed and be apprehended and most times they operate those real estate companies by proxy.”

He said the committee was to sanitize the sector through professional intervention by arbitration before considering anti-graft agencies.

“This committee was inaugurated so that the genuine real estate developers can focus and do business in a way and manner that the government will be proud of them. Real estate is our business and we can’t watch fraudsters take the centre stage.

“We want to do our business in a way that government will not say we are aiding and abetting criminals with our businesses,” he said. (Daily Trust)