Richard Nyong, CEO, Lekki Gardens, is a stickler for excellence. People whose paths have crossed his say that he is almost a perfectionist.
It is, therefore, no exaggeration when people discuss the growing success of his estate company, which is currently taking the Lagos housing sector by storm, with palpable excitement.
Already, his firm has been smiling to the bank after successfully delivering over 2,000 housing units comprising thousands of semi-detached houses to terraced duplexes and flats in more than nine residential estates. They are named Lekki Horizon, Lekki Paradise, Lekki Gardens II, III and IV located between Chevron Bus Stop and Lagos Business School, Victoria Island, Lagos.
With a tinge of satisfaction, he once was quoted as saying: “There is no magic in what we have achieved. I would rather ascribe the success to a clear vision of housing solutions and an innate desire to serve the customer.’’
However, Nyong is currently going through a hard time after one of his buildings , a five-storey building under construction on Kushenla Road, Ikate Elegushi, collapsed and killed no fewer than 34 persons. The building had crumbled with several persons trapped in the rubble, forcing the state government to seal the building and the Akwa-Ibom State businessman arrested and detained before he was eventually granted a bail by a magistrate court.
If you think this is his only headache, perish that thought. Nyong’s burden is enormous! While the state government is dragging him to court for integrity issue, Spyglass gathered that many of the subscribers are pulling him down as they no longer trust him.
Even before the building collapse saga, Spyglass gathered that some subscribers were crying out against the cutthroat rents being charged by his management team after they had made full payment for their respective houses. Some of these additional fees range from payment of an extra N55 per kilowatt for electricity to a Deed of Assignment fee, which is in excess of half a million naira per person, to poor infrastructure and a monthly service to the tune of a quarter of a million naira per apartment.
Consequently, owners of homes in Lekki Garden Estates, who described the various fees as outrageous and strange, said they would resist the arbitrary charges in all ways.
Consequently, Nyong has been urged to urgently act fast so as to save the situation from degenerating.
