₦airaland Forum

Lagos-Calabar Highway: Foreign investors decry $250m property demolition


A real estate investor leading other diasporans to invest in the country through WinHomes Global Estate, Stella Okengwu, has decried the demolition of the company’s estate worth $250m.

She decried this act at a press briefing in Lagos State on Wednesday, alleging that the act was a targeted action by the Minister of Works, David Umahi.

She said the illegal diversion to WinsHomes Global Estate affected property owners who live in the diaspora.

Okengwu said, “All the estate of WinHomes Global Estate, worth $250m was demolished following an order by the Minister of Works, David Umahi.

“This world press conference intends to expose all of the falsehood and lay bare all the facts of the illegal coastal road alignment and diversion from the initial and authorised alignment of the 2006 gazette earmarked by the then Lagos state governor and now our President Bola Tinubu.”

She noted that it was an easy choice for her to answer the call by Tinubu after his inauguration on May 29, 2023, which he followed up on with various overseas travels in his insistent drive for Nigerians in the diaspora to come back home and join hands into the development of the country by investing in Nigeria.

“As a real estate investor, I, my partners, Femi Adekoya and Olawale Oluwa (Pelle Homes) knew we had to contribute and make our impact felt immediately.

“We collaborated to acquire a substantial tract of land to support our esteemed President’s economic agenda and proceed with its comprehensive development.

“However, the recent actions of the Minister of Works have cast a shadow over these efforts,” Okengwu stated.

According to her, the diasporan real estate investors expressed their anguish over the demolition of their investments in the Okun Ajah area of Lagos State, calling for urgent intervention from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and an investigation into alleged corruption within the Ministry of Works.

She disclosed, “The real estate development, which had attracted substantial foreign direct investment, was destroyed on October 5, 2024. This demolition was carried out under the orders of the Federal Ministry of Works and allegedly violates the 2006 gazetted alignment for a proposed coastal road project.

“Through WinHomes Investment Scheme, 70 per cent of subscribers were diasporans, injecting millions into the Nigerian economy. The investors had meticulously followed legal protocols, obtaining all necessary documentation, including a certificate of occupancy, governor’s consent, and coastal road clearance.”

Okengwu further accused the Federal Ministry of Works of illegally diverting the coastal road from its authorised alignment, resulting in the destruction of all properties in WinHomes estate without prior notice or legal justification.

She alleged, “In addition, there is no marine hub cable in Okun-Ajah to prompt any reason for the diversion. Corruption within the Ministry, claiming that residents of Ocean Bay paid to have their properties spared. We were blindsided by the demolition.”


She urged the President to intervene directly, restore the original coastal road alignment, and ensure that the Senate Committee on Works investigates the corruption.

When contacted for comments on the development, the Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Works, Orji Orji, told our correspondent that there was nothing to react on.

He said, “Such complaints should officially be channelled for appropriate response. We can’t react on nothing.”

In an earlier report, the residents of the Okun Ajah community in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State raised the alarm over the alleged illegal diversion of the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Expressway through their community by some officials of the Federal and State government agencies.

The community also debunked claims by the Ministry of Works that the decision to divert the road in Okun-Ajah was necessitated by the presence of telecommunications cable.

The residents in a letter by their Chairman and Secretary, Isah Noibi and Yusuf Odunuga, respectively, urged President Tinubu to direct the officials to reverse the diversion.

The Construction of the Lagos-Calabar Highway officially began in March 2024 with the first phase, a 47.7km stretch in Lagos State, starting from Ahmadu Bello Way.

Umahi previously stated that the full 700km highway is expected to be completed in eight years, with multiple sections beginning simultaneously once procurement, approvals, and other necessary processes are finalised.

Upright234:
They think that those abroad will not see how they treat those at home.

SmartPolician:
$250m! That's 0.4 trillion naira

The way these people throw numbers around would make you wonder if they are actually talking about USD or defunct Zimbabwean dollars

emkz:
What Peter Obi is trying to do is politics of populism. He realizes that the social media mob is sympathetic to the Landmark CEO who encroached on government land, and he decided to initiate a Twitter rant yesterday condemning the project.

To tell you how dangerous it is, some people are now asking investors not to invest in Lagos and a dangerous ethnic dimension has entered the conversation.

Landmark is one of several businesses and why are other businesses silent?

Looking at what was demolished, see picture below; please how does that amount to $200million investment? Quantity surveyors and valuers, please give a fair assessment of the value of that swimming pool and temporary shanties.

While I think Umahi went too far in saying Peter Obi is inciting Igbos, I think it is important for Peter Obi to inform himself of the implications of some of his submissions in the public arena. Nigeria is too fragile to play this ethnic game because of elections.

What many are reading is him fighting for his brother's investment, whipping up mob sentiments and misrepresenting facts.

Until now, Landmark has not proved to the social media that they own the land. They are saying shift the project away so I can illegally stay on the land. That is the illegality Peter Obi supports.

Apparently, the most expensive asset there is the swimming pool.

From the internet, the cost of a swimming pool is as follows;

Let's say each gazebo costs ₦500,000. There are about twenty of them there. That works out to about ₦10,000,000. I see three buildings. Let's put them at the cost of ₦20,000,000 each. Assuming the swimming pool costs ₦80,000,000 to build + ₦10,000,000 for gazebos and ₦60,000,000 for building, that works out to ₦150,000,000. Using an exchange rate of USD$1 = ₦1,263.273; that works out to USD$120,000. Okay, let's use the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar as at six years ago, since the CEO of Landmark claimed it was a six year investment. Obviously, prices were way cheaper then, but let us still use today's prices. That ₦150,000,000 works out to about USD$450,000 using an exchange rate of ₦333 to the dollar which obtained as at six years ago. Experts can argue for inflation and price fluctuations.

Clearly, the costing shows that the investment demolished is between 0.225% to 0.06% of the $200m investment claimed by the Landmark CEO. Of course, many bought it and ran with it.

At this time, the Landmark CEO owes the government an apology and owes the mob on social media an apology for misleading the public through social media.

shivisee:
This obituary people are just lucky that tinubu has a forgiving heart,which is obvious during his time as the lagos state governor, holding the record for employing the highest numbers of ungraten ipod,s empty heads in his government. i mean you goad him everyday that he's part of the individual stagnating the progress of lagos,hence you need to change the governance through chinedu whose mum is from agulu where your package ipod leader and pretender is from! on the othe hand, you keep on wailing and crying over every of his effort to modernize the same lagos!honestly, if i am tinubu, most of you from the 5 barren plots of land inhabiting in lagos will rot in jail.

shivisee:
This obituary people are just lucky that tinubu has a forgiving heart,which is obvious during his time as the lagos state governor, holding the record for employing the highest numbers of ungraten ipod,s empty heads in his government. i mean you goad him everyday that he's part of the individual stagnating the progress of lagos,hence you need to change the governance through chinedu whose mum is from agulu where your package ipod leader and pretender is from! on the othe hand, you keep on wailing and crying over every of his effort to modernize the same lagos!honestly, if i am tinubu, most of you from the 5 barren plots of land inhabiting in lagos will rot in jail.