The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Landmark Beach Resort, Paul Onwuanibe said that the federal government has refused to compensate the company nearly nine months after the demolition of his over $200m beach resort in Oniru, Lagos State.
Onwuanibe said the action is enough to scare foreign direct investors from investing their money in Nigeria.
The CEO said this in an interview aired on Sunday and seen by NewsNGR.
The demolition of structures at Landmark Beach Resort in Oniru, Victoria Island, commenced on April 29, 2024 to give way for the 700 kilometer Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi said the government disbursed the total amount of N2.75bn as the first payment to property owners affected by the demolition.
But Landmark Group was not among those compensated.
In a statement released in May 2024, Landmark Group sought compensation for the demolition of the asset.
The CEO said, “Not a penny. To date, we haven’t been compensated,” adding “nobody has written to me and promised (to compensate).”
Onwunibe lamented the land was acquired from the government for $17m in 2006 and the firm took a facility worth $30m to develop the property.
He said, “We were issued a seven-day notice. I mean, to be fair, it took another two or three months before it came. Till today, nobody picked up the phone, called me or wrote to me personally and said here is the issue we have or here is what is going to happen.
” That site we bought in 2006, 18 years ago and we paid $17m in 2006. We borrowed $30m to develop that beach. The pain and the hurt is that we spent $30m developing the infrastructure on that beach.
“But you know the biggest tragedy of this was the businesses that were affected by the losses of revenue. We had a beach hotel and people were sleeping in the hotel when the demolition started. We didn’t have time to take the TV from the walls, the mattress from the bed, the pictures on the wall, the plates from the kitchen and there were guests in the pool.
“There were over 160,000 members of the beach and someone has decided or a set of people decided that a road infrastructure project is more important than socio-economic activities along that 700 kilometer coastlines. Unfortunately, I was in the first kilometer.”