By Jude Njoku

Lekki Peninsula Scheme 2 is one of the schemes designed by the Lagos State Government over a decade ago to satisfy the yearning of people for plots of land to build personal houses in the highbrow Lekki axis. Specifically, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 2 which was mapped out in 1996 has a land area of 514.53 hectares. A further breakdown shows that the scheme has 3,095 residential plots, 64 commercial plots, 47 mixed development plots, 26 institutional plots and 17 recreational plots.

Following the huge success recorded in the development of Lekki Scheme 1, many people who wanted to own properties in the  choice area, including land speculators, rushed in and in a jiffy, all the land, including parcels that were heavily water-logged, were sold off. But unlike Lekki Scheme 1 where massive development is still ongoing, the development of Scheme 2 is going on at a snail’s pace.

*Oba Elegushi Housing Estate

Governor Babatunde Fashola who was evidently worried by this development, frowned at the activities of land speculators in the area. The Governor warned plot owners in the scheme to commence the development of their plots, or have them confiscated by the State. According to him, the Government will carry out a verification of plot owners in the scheme to determine true allottees from speculators with a view to confiscating plots of speculative land holders.

The Governor who had in February this year, commissioned the Oba Elegushi Housing Estate in a bid to open up the area, was pissed by the activities of those who buy land and instead of developing them, wait for when the value will appreciate so that they can resell to make huge profits.

Fashola who commissioned nine road projects at the Lekki phase 11 scheme as part of efforts  to open up the area, stated that ”those who are just speculative holders will have their plots taken from them and sold to genuine prospective home owners”.

He appealed to plots owners in the scheme to immediately commence the development of their plots to justify the  state’s huge infrastructure investment in terms of road network,drainage system and street lighting..

The Governor who stated that the Oba Elegushi Housing Estate was deliberately sited in the scheme as part of government’s efforts to attract people to the area,  wondered why some people who got their  allocation over 20 years ago and have done nothing to take physical possession of them, should be allowed to retain ownership of such plots.

Some of the facilities already put in place to woo developers into the area include a micro-water work that will supply potable water to the scheme and the erection and reticulation of the electric poles, the street lights and the installation of transformers.

General Manager, New Towns Development Authority, Dr. Adeyemi Isiba said aggressive pursuit of the development of the scheme is a catalyst to attract the movement of allottees into the scheme to develop their plots.

A Lagos -based estate surveyor and valuer, Mr. Stephen Jagun wondered why the Government should compel allottees to move in when the infrastructure required to make the place liveable, have not been provided. He stated that  the inability of most plot allottees to move in to commence development, stemmed from the dearth of funds in the country and the fact that the infrastructure already put in place by the State Government is not yet adequate.

Jagun wondered why the Government should threaten the allottees with revocation of their plots when they know that there is no money in the system. Noting that the area is prone to flooding, the former President of the International Facilities Management Association Nigeria chapter, IFMA Nigeria,  explained that adequate provision has not yet been made for drainage outlets in the neighbourhood.

According to him, it would gulp a lot of money to sandfill the swampy land not to talk of actual development of the plots. He therefore called on the State to first provide the infrastructure instead of threatening the allottees with revocation of their titles.

Vanguard Homes& Property learnt that almost one year after the commissioning of the 90-units Oba Elegushi Luxury Estate built by the Lagos State Development & Property Corporation, LSDPC, some of the houses are yet to be sold, unlike what obtained in other estates developed by the corporation.

A usually reliable source at the corporation, explained that some allottees have already moved in, even as security in the area has been beefed up with the the establishment of a police post.

Vanguard Homes & Property learnt that getting access to the estate poses a  great problem as many of the allottees have to first go through Abraham Adesanya Housing Estate located after Ajah.