Banana Island Property owners/residents’ association has expressed disaffection over the Apple Island project being promoted by the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL).
The residents said they met the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai when he visited the site of the proposed Apple Island and expressed their grievances over the project, which made him to stop the elaborate ground breaking ceremony.
NAPL has last week erected a signpost in Banana Island in Ikoyi Local Government Area of Lagos for the development of its iconic Apple Island off the shore of the island.
According to the chairman of the association, Mr. Chudi Ubosi, the land was handed over to the association by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, about 10 years ago to build a recreational/boat club in the area.
Banana Island is Nigeria’s most expensive neighbourhood on equal status with the seventh arrondissement in Paris, La Jolla in San Diego, California and Tokyo’s Shibuya or the Roppongi neighbourhoods.
Sitting on 1.6 million square metres, the island is divided into 535 plots with sizes of 1,000 and 3,000 square metres.
He said: ”We didn’t know what they wanted to do there. They told us that they were expecting the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to host him.
Initially we had our signpost there, which signifies that the land was to be used for a boat club with a small jetty.