Lekki residents protest poor service by estate manager

By Sunday
Residents of the Occeanbay Estate in Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State, on Saturday, protested against the estate developer, Mr. Jide Odusolu, over the way and manner he handles their affairs.
Addressing journalists after the placard-bearing residents marched around the estate, the Chairperson of the Occeanbay Residents Association, Jite Titiloye, alleged that in spite of heavy infrastructural fee they paid to be able to have quality service, the management of the estate has failed to live up to its part of the bargain.
“It has been tales of poor service, horrible communication and lack of transparency on the part of the estate managers. When you talk of Occeanbay, you think of Nigeria because it is just like a mini-Nigeria in terms of what we are facing here. This is supposed to be an environment where the elite or middle class work hard and pay a premium in order to have peace of mind and live a fairly good life. We pay a premium to get good services but the reverse is the case,” she said.
She stated that apart from an untidy environment, smelling water, and porous security which were not what the residents bargained for when they were paying heavy premiums to the estate managers, the most important facility that is currently driving the residents crazy is failure of the estate manager to provide electricity for them.
She stressed that they paid heavily just to ensure that they have a 24-hour power supply but that has not happened, even as she lamented that what they get in return is darkness.
“For electricity, we pay for a 24-hour power supply. We pay before power is given to us, so we have paid for this year but as we speak today, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has disconnected our light because we are indebted to the tune of N55 million. What happened to the N55 million? Somebody collected the money and didn’t remit it to the power company; that is what has been happening” she said.
The residents, according to Titiloye, are saying that enough is enough and that they would want Mr Odusolu to sit up and live up to his own part of the bargain or hand over the estate to another management company that would do a better job.
A resident, Francis Orbih, also protested, saying, “All we are asking for is to get value for our money. We can’t pay so much and get so little. And when we complain, we don’t get any response. It is like they don’t feel we should have any say. It is either he does the job or he hands over to another management company that is more competent to do the job. We want value for our money.”
In the same vein, another resident, Victoria Igwe, said: “I want the brazen impunity to stop. We are not their servants; we pay them. We pay for their services. If they can’t handle the service, they should hand over to another company.”
But, Mr. Odusolu dismissed all the allegations as false. Although he accepted that the EKEDC disconnected the estate, he said he bought a new generator and installed it on the same day just to ensure that there is power supply in the estate. “I told them that because of this transition, we will ration power. We guaranteed them a 21-hour power supply and that has not failed for once in the last two months. They get 21-hour power in this estate at N72 per kilowatt,” he added.
He, however, threatened to take a legal action against the residents for attempting to tarnish his reputation. He said: “Everything they are saying is a lie. I am going to sue them for all these false allegations against my person.”