Valuers bicker over N700bn loss attributed to EndSAR protest

Following the over dependence on importation and the devaluation of the Naira with its impact on the real sector, the Estate surveyors and valuers have faulted the N700 billion loss attributed to the recent protest against Police brutality.

The President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Sir Emmanuel Wike, speaking at a press conference in Abuja, argued that the figure lacked merit, adding that it was a result of guesswork.

Wike declared that the real estate is currently challenged, following the devaluation of the naira, largely dependent on importation as well as the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, stressing that the standards of living are being weakened while inflation has affected prices of materials.

Recalled that the Endsars protest, which recently took place in some major cities of Nigeria regrettably, escalated into violence, following the hijack of the movement by hoodlums, which aftermath adversely affected the fragile economy of the country as the arsonists went on a rampage and destroyed private and public properties in Lagos and some other state capitals in a magnitude, which was horrendous.

However, the  Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) put the value of the loss at about N700 billion while the government also came up with figures of the number of properties destroyed with cost of reconstruction running into several billions of naira.

Wike said “While not contesting the fact that properties worth billions of naira were destroyed, we however wish to state unequivocally that estate surveyors and valuers are the only professionals empowered by training and law to place a monetary value on assets.

“As the President of the institution, I am not aware that our members were consulted to put monetary values on the properties destroyed. How the government came about the amount being brandished, I sincerely don’t know,” Wike argued.