The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has sealed the Lekki office of PWAN Maxi Property and Business Solution Limited over allegations of non-allocation of 20 plots of land to buyers.

Speaking during the exercise in Lekki on Monday, the South-West Zonal Coordinator of the FCCPC, Mrs Olubunmi Otti, explained that the exercise, pursuant to Section 150(4)(a) of the FCCPC Act 2018, was carried out following a consumer complaint against the management of the company.

She added that the consumer lamented the failure to allocate the land after fully paying and subscribing for it. Otti stressed that PWAN declined to honour invitations sent to the company by the commission during the course of the investigation.

“Following a consumer complaint against the management of PWAN Max Property and Business Solutions Ltd for non-allocation of 20 plots of land fully subscribed to and paid for by a consumer, in February 2025, the commission initiated an investigation and subsequently invited the respondent, PWAN Ltd, to the commission. PWAN Ltd, however, declined to honour both invitations sent to them by the commission,” Otti said.

According to Otti, the commission subsequently issued a summons to PWAN, after which the company entered into a witness statement and agreed to allocate the “20 plots of land and issue all necessary documents regarding the 20 plots of land on or before June 30, 2025.”

She, nevertheless, highlighted that at the expiration of the agreed timeline, PWAN failed to honour the agreement. Otti stated that the FCCPC then issued a compliance notice to the undertaking, “as permitted under Section 150(1) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018.”

“That notice, as required by Section 150(2), clearly sets out the nature of the non-compliance, the steps required to remedy it, the deadline for taking those steps, and the penalties for failure to comply,” she said.

The coordinator maintained that despite being duly served with the compliance notice and given a reasonable period to take the required remedial steps, the undertaking had failed to comply with the notice.

“Consequently, and in direct exercise of FCCPC powers under Section 150(4)(a) of the FCCPA, 2018, which states that where an undertaking fails to comply with a compliance notice, the commission shall shut down or close any premises from which the notice continues to be breached until the breach or non-compliance is remedied, the FCCPC has today proceeded to seal these premises,” she added.

She pointed out that the enforcement action was not punitive in the first instance but protective and corrective. Otti reiterated that the sealing would remain in force until the commission was satisfied that the prior breach had been fully remedied, at which point a compliance certificate would be issued under Section 150(3).

“We urge all undertakings to take compliance notices seriously, as the law does not permit the commission to exercise discretion once a clear violation persists after a notice has been ignored. We also urge consumers to exercise due diligence in all transactions and to verify any business thoroughly before committing their money,” she added.

One of the complainants, Mr Olamide Olagunloye, accused PWAN of collecting a total of N1m from him for a plot of land which it had failed to allocate. He said he first paid N700,000 and later paid an additional N300,000, adding that he had been coming to the office over the last three months but had not met any staff members.

“So, they have been collecting my money, saying that they will give me one plot of land. So, everything was N700,000, then they said I needed to pay an extra N300,000, making it N1m. I have been coming here for like three months. I did not see them. So, I came to collect my land, and up to today, I did not see them. And they just gave me the paper, everything they have,” he said.

Another complainant, Mr Ifeanyi Okafor, said that around 2018, he was approached by PWAN staff members to buy land and pay by instalments. “We have a shop close by here. So, the staff members came to our shop and told us we should come and buy land that we could be paying for instrumentally,” he said.

Okafor added that when he noticed how things were going, he stopped making payments, stressing that he had paid a total of N480,000.

Meanwhile, at the time of the enforcement exercise, no staff member of PWAN was at the office to speak with journalists.

Several attempts made by our correspondent to obtain a reaction from PWAN were unsuccessful, as the different phone numbers listed on the company’s website were not connecting at the time of filing this report.