Suru Group to Raise Funds for Late Super Eagles Stars’ Families, IDPs

Mary Nnah

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Suru Group, Mr. Edward Akinlade, has planned a fund raising walk where he alongside several Nigerian celebrities, will embark on a 10-day walk from Lagos to Ibadan to raise fund for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and support the families of deceased Super Eagles players. Akinlade, a real estate guru, disclosed this during an interaction with the media in Lagos.

He said, “There are many ex-Super Eagles players that have died and their families are living in penury. This is just to encourage the families and those who believe in this cause to come together and support them.

“So, what I decided was that Suru Group will donate N10 million to open a pot for that purpose. As I walk to Ibadan, which is about 100 miles, we will do 10 miles per day. We will like the whole of Nigeria to support this walk.

“This historic task will commence October 1, 2018, and it will last for 10 days. I’m sure that by the time we get to Ibadan, Nigeria will be a new country.

“We will set off every morning from 6am and relax at 6pm every day, until we complete the last leg of our journey when we arrive in Ibadan.”

Akinlade frowned on the rate of poverty in the country and said expanding investment in housing could take the nation out of poverty in one year. He expressed the hope that part of agenda for the coming elections would be on how poverty could be reduced in Nigeria.

He went further to predict the effect of the coming elections on the nation’s economy. “As we move towards election, money will not be available for other things. So many people will be focused on election. This means people will not have money to pay their rent and buy property.

“You will see activities in capital market falling to zero until after election. This happened the last time and it affected us. A lot of people will wait to see the winner before they have confidence to spend,” he said.
Akinlade said Suru group had been in Nigeria for over 10 years, explaining, “We are focused in real estate and hotels. In real estate, we have done so many developments in Lagos. We own a number of hotels all around Lagos.
“The Suru Express Hotel, Best Westown Hotel and on the Homes, we have done developments in Ikorodu, Surulere, Ebute Metta. We are one of the first companies that did terrace construction at Ikeja GRA.
“Ten years ago, we built about 56 terrace houses, we sold part of them and we still own 30 of them in GRA that we are renting. We then have two separate divisions, which are Suru Group and Hotels.
“We are involved in a number of projects. We are developing about 40 flats in Ikorodu, and that we hope to complete by December this year. We are asking the buyers to pay just half the value and we are giving them the remaining two years to pay the balance.”