A Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Enugu, led by Kindness Jonah, has organised a protest against high rents in the state.
The coalition said that the protest became necessary following the hike in house rent, which is choking tenants in Enugu city.
The protesters complained that lawyers and agents also contribute to the high rent due to their unnecessary charges that are added to landlords’ fee.
The demonstrators were carrying various placards with inscriptions such as, “High rent in Enugu, no lawyer fee; high rent in Enugu, no agency fee; high rent in Enugu, stop legal fee, management and caution fee; no agency fee, no lawyer’s fee among others.
The demonstrators called on the Enugu State House of Assembly and the administration of Peter Mbah to come to their aid and make laws that would regulate rent in the state and stop lawyers and other agents from increasing rents in the state.
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Jonah, while speaking to journalists after the protest, said that the protest was against hike in rent in Enugu, which is getting beyond the reach of the common man.
“By this demonstration today, we are saying that rents in Enugu are too high due to lawyers’ and agency fees.
“A landlord does not need agency. A landlord does not need a lawyer. A landlord should write his agreement in common English. Go and buy seal in high court and put it there.
“Agree with the tenant and that is how it used to be before but now the lawyers came into the scenario and hiked the rent, so that a landlord whether he needs a lawyer or not will charge lawyers fee and agent fee,” he said and asked the governor to intervene.
“Governor must intervene because this is too much. The House of Assembly should sit up and enact a law to curb the hike,” he stated.
From our investigations many lawyers today are no longer going to courts, but serious with the land agents and agreement writing.
