Osborne Foreshore Phase II in Ikoyi flooded. A developer in the estate has been accused of building on a canal and obstructing drainage. He denies it, says the dispute is personal, and has put a number on what drainage costs him: ₦60 million on canal maintenance in 2026.
Chief Ken Okonha, CEO of Kensha Group Limited and developer of Abba Court on Mahogany Close, set out his position after the Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Hamzat, visited the estate on 31 October to assess the flooding.
What is alleged
That Abba Court was built on a canal, encroached on public land, and was constructed without permits. That drainage channels serving the estate have been obstructed. That a disputed gate was forced open.
These are allegations. No court has ruled on them, and Okonha disputes all of them.
What he says
| Allegation | His response |
|---|---|
| Built on a canal | The water channel through his property is not connected to Osborne’s drainage system; it absorbs water from Ilubirin |
| Encroached on public land / land grabbing | His involvement is a public-private partnership with the Federal Government under a build, operate and transfer arrangement |
| Obstructed drainage | He has spent ₦60m on canal maintenance this year and ₦100m the previous year |
| Forced open a disputed gate | The dispute is a civil matter, now in the courts; he has complied with the state’s directive to suspend activity there |
| Denied the Deputy Governor access | He was out of the country and had directed sites closed under an estate management circular |
The drainage numbers
His expenditure claim is the most concrete thing in the dispute:
- ₦60 million on canal maintenance in 2026
- ₦100 million the previous year
- Long-reach excavators deployed at about ₦1 million a day
He says the canal at the rear of the site was handed to him to maintain by the Federal Ministry of Housing when construction began, and that he can produce payment records and the contractor’s name to verify the spend.
Whether those figures are accurate is unverified. But the order of magnitude is the story: maintaining one canal in one Lagos estate costs tens of millions of naira a year, and the digging alone runs at a million naira a day.
Why Osborne floods, in his account
Low-lying terrain. Inadequate drainage. Land settlement. Increasing development. Existing infrastructure that cannot carry the volume of water a heavy rainfall now produces.
His proposed remedy is a proper engineering solution: reconstruct the drainage system, create reservoirs, and install industrial pumps to discharge excess water into the lagoon while preventing backflow into the estate.
He says the design has been prepared with the Federal Government and submitted to the estate management, and that funding is what has delayed it. That is the sentence a buyer should sit with.
What this means if you are buying into an estate
Drainage is a shared asset with no clear owner. In a gated estate, the roads and drains may be built by a developer, maintained by an association, or handed to government – and the handover is often undocumented. When it floods, everyone points at someone else.
Ask who maintains the drainage, in writing. Not “is there drainage” but who is contractually responsible, what the annual budget is, and where that money sits. A maintenance obligation with no budget is a promise, not a plan.
Price the pumps into the service charge. Osborne’s fix needs pumps and reservoirs. Those are capital items with running costs. If the service charge does not fund them, the estate will not have them – and the flooding recurs.
Check the topography before the finishing. Low-lying land, reclaimed land and areas with settlement history flood first. In Lagos this is not a detail; it is the difference between a home and a write-off.
Look at the canal, not the brochure. Visit in the rainy season if you can. A blocked or silted channel is visible, and it tells you more about the estate’s management than any residents’ committee minutes.
Understand setback lines. The disputed portion here was reportedly identified as a setback. Building inside a setback puts drainage and access at risk, and it is the kind of defect that surfaces years later – usually when it floods.
The wider point about Ikoyi and Lekki
Osborne, Ikoyi and the Lekki corridor are among the most expensive addresses in Nigeria and among the most flood-exposed. Buyers pay premium prices for proximity to the water and then discover that the drainage serving them was designed for a smaller estate, on lower ground, decades ago.
That is a risk the price does not always reflect. A ₦250 million apartment in a poorly drained estate can be worth materially less after two flood seasons than an equivalent unit on higher ground – and the buyer will not discover the difference from the listing.
What is not established
No court or regulatory finding has been made on any of the allegations. The article reports the developer’s response in detail; it does not set out the complainants’ evidence, and no independent assessment of the canal, the permits or the setback is quoted.
The ₦60 million and ₦100 million figures are the developer’s own claims, unverified. The ₦1 million a day excavator cost is also his.
No figure has been published for the flood damage itself – how many homes were affected, what it cost, or how often the estate has flooded.
Frequently asked questions
What caused the flooding at Osborne Foreshore?
The developer attributes it to low-lying terrain, inadequate drainage, land settlement and increased development. No independent assessment has been published.
Was Abba Court built on a canal?
That is the allegation. The developer denies it and says the channel through his property is not connected to Osborne’s drainage system.
How much does canal maintenance cost?
The developer says ₦60 million in 2026 and ₦100 million the previous year, with excavators at about ₦1 million a day. These figures are his and have not been independently verified.
What should I check before buying in a Lagos estate?
Who owns and funds drainage maintenance, the estate’s flood history, the topography, and whether any part of the property falls inside a setback or right of way.
Last updated: 6 November 2026. The allegations, Chief Ken Okonha’s responses, the ₦60 million and ₦100 million canal maintenance figures, the ₦1 million a day excavator cost, the setback reference, the Deputy Governor’s 31 October visit, the proposed drainage solution and the funding delay are from The Guardian’s report of 6 November 2026. The allegations are unproven and no finding is made. General guidance on estate drainage; not legal or engineering advice.
