Lekki Gardens assures subscribers of commitment to deliver their housesleaving

Lekki Gardens Estates Limited has assured all the people who subscribed to its estates of its commitment to complete and deliver the houses to them as planned.

Richard Nyong, the company’s chief executive, who gave this assurance in a statement in Lagos, assured that the company was “firmly determined to stay the course whatever the circumstances.”

A young real estate investment and development company described by experts as a change agent in the Nigerian housing industry, Lekki Gardens was recently hit by a tragic incident involving the collapse of a five-storey building in one of its estates in Lagos in which lives were lost and injuries sustained.

“The losses to all stakeholders – the victims, Lagos State, the nation and our subscribers are irreparable and immeasurable,” Nyong noted, describing the emotional, psychological and reputational damage as incalculable.

He lamented that as a business, the company had suffered and been battered, adding, “everything which we have done in the past, including what we hitherto perceived as our good works such as the delivery of 4,000 homes to the citizens of Lagos State in safe neighbourhoods, have been called to question; we have been hit in all ways – emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially and all kinds of theories have been propounded.”

He restated their committed, within the period, to work and cooperate fully with the state government and the police in their inquiries and investigations to find out the cause of the unfortunate incident, pointing out that “we have and will continue to do that not only for the victims, but also for ourselves and the entire construction industry in Nigeria so as to forestall any future reoccurrence.”

Continuing, he said, “we have also vowed that, whatever is the cost to ourselves and the business, we will take steps to remedy any building which is found even slightly irregular,” stressing that saving lives has always been their priority because there is no way they could change lives or present themselves as agents of change if they could not save lives.

The statement reads in part: “Lekki Gardens has always taken its role as a change agent seriously. Our management team is a group of relatively young people who see themselves as change agents in a society, which needs a lot of change agents such as the present Governor of Lagos State. In our short existence as a business, we have fought for the people who had hitherto been unable to access and afford quality homes at affordable prices. These are actually the majority of our subscribers

“These un-sheltered people form a large proportion of the population of this nation and Lagos State. Financial rewards have never been our goal and any that has come our way is an indirect consequence. We commenced our change agent role with our estate development model in the state and, in doing so, encountered the long process of acquiring approvals for which we wrote several letters to the state government. We are thankful, though we do not in any way claim credit for the fact that the Lagos State government has now introduced e-planning permit, which will make the approval process faster.”

Nyong recalled that since the sad incident on their estate, they had been peaceful and would remain so, adding that they have reached out to the state government and the governor to express their gratitude to them for releasing the projects that have passed the integrity tests so that the citizens could go back to their homes with peace of mind.
“A lot of lives and homes have been saved by this swift, singularly magnanimous act. We are most grateful to Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of the state for his prompt and immediate action. It is, indeed, a manifestation of the change slogan of his government. Doing our bit to help the state government move forward is also our priority,” he said.