The Royal Gardens Residents’ Association (RGERA) has called on Lagos State government to intervene in the estate’s crisis. They want government to ensure that the bulk metering system in the estate is discontinued as it promotes injustice for a full transparent collection and use of service charges.

The estate residents said after years of pushing to end the injustice internally and stakeholders like the Electricity distribution company, it was forced to earlier this year take the issue to the House of Assembly.

By 2025, the impasse had spilled into the political arena. Determined not to let the fight degenerate into lawlessness, RGERA carried their grievances to the Lagos State House of Assembly. It was here, before the Committee on Housing, chaired by Segun Ege, that residents laid out the depth of their plight.

They described how a bulk metering system had shackled them to a single communal meter, forcing them to share collective liability for the estate’s bills. They explained how an April 2024 tariff hike from ₦74 to ₦241 per kilowatt-hour had multiplied their monthly obligations almost fivefold, from about ₦60 million to nearly ₦290 million, and how since May 26, 2024, much of the estate had lived in intermittent darkness because the bills were simply impossible to bear.

According to them, the legislators listened as RGERA chairman, Ogbebor, painted a picture of a developer who did not even live on the estate yet wielded the power to block EKEDC’s offer of direct metering. They heard how Trojan had ignored invitations from the Nigerian Electricity Commission to mediate, choosing instead to stall in court. And they noted the frustration of residents who had paid faithfully, but have found themselves punished by a system they described as “clearly against the law.”

In response, lawmakers directed Trojan to produce documents on the pending litigation and hinted they might seek the intervention of the Chief Judge to hasten a ruling. Nothing final was decided, but two demands crystallised as the heart of the struggle: dismantling the bulk metering system and instituting full transparency in the collection and use of service charges.

Therefore, when residents of Royal Garden Estate (RGE) in Ajah, Lagos, look back on the last seven years, they will see that only one issue has defined their lives: electricity. It not the simple matter of supply but the politics, billing, governance and bitter battles that have shaped life in the community. What began as a routine service arrangement with common area electricity bills folded neatly into service charges has spiralled into a drawn-out struggle for transparency, accountability and self-determination. It has turned into story of how a group of homeowners found themselves confronting developers, property managers, filing litigation and going through a legislative hearing in a protracted struggle.

Until December 2017, the cost of electricity for streetlights, water plant and other common services was lumped into the service charges residents paid to Broll, the estate’s property managers.

That system, while not flawless, at least shielded homeowners from the full burden shortfalls with Trojan Estates, the developer, covering the excess. Negotiations for a formal service agreement were underway and residents expected a smooth transition by January 2018. That was not what they got.

At a tense February 2018 meeting in Lekki, Trojan announced it would no longer absorb shortfalls. Common-area electricity, it said, would be excluded from the service charge and residents would henceforth bear the entire burden. Trojan warned that including electricity for common services in the agreement would make the arrangement unsustainable.

The subtext was clear: accept the new terms or risk being left in the dark. Reluctantly residents agreed. The compromise resulted in a new levy of ₦20,000 per household per month or roughly ₦250,000 a year. For many, it was a bitter pill. More painful was the realisation that Trojan had shifted the entire risk to them.

Almost immediately the levy became contentious. Trojan had once shouldered 60 to 70 percent of shortfalls, but residents now bear the full burden. By year’s end, there were whispers of mismanagement. Residents demanded to know where funds collected were going.

The Royal Gardens Residents’ Association (RGERA) commissioned a forensic audit by Pedabo Audit Services. The auditors discovered more than ₦9 million in excess, unremitted balances and duplicated charges were sitting in Broll’s accounts. Armed with evidence residents demanded reconciliation and transparency. Instead they met a stone wall in Trojan, founded by Rilwan Olakunle Tinubu

By 2019, the conflict had hardened into a standoff. Broll suspended electricity token sales to force residents into accepting revised service charges. Residents fought back. A Federal High Court injunction ordered the resumption of services and restrained further arbitrary disconnections. Enforcement, however, proved elusive. Residents turned to alternatives. New CONLOG meters were introduced in November 2019 replacing the older MOMAS system. But token sales, audits and year-end contributions to settle Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) bills became the new normal, a fragile workaround that masked deeper fractures.

The truce collapsed in March 2021 when EKEDC discovered that RGE’s bulk meter had been under-recording supply. The correction sent bills soaring with demands as high as ₦50 million. Residents protested but by September EKEDC disconnected power entirely. For eight long weeks Royal Gardens sat in darkness. Power was restored only after residents paid ₦24 million, scraping the funds together through emergency contributions.

Even as bills ballooned, another problem surfaced. It was that of energy theft. Illegal connections and bypassed meters siphoned supply. Residents alleged that Trojan and Broll were indifferent because any shortfall was automatically transferred to residents. RGERA sought EKEDC’s help in auditing the system but Trojan resisted. Frustrated, residents began carrying out their own investigations, tracking suspicious consumption and exposing cheats. To them, the fight against theft became part of the broader campaign for accountability as well as proof that management had abdicated its responsibilities.

But electricity, as big as it is, is just one of several grievances. Also, in the package is the sense of political exclusion. Homeowners complained that key decisions were made unilaterally by Trojan and Broll, with residents treated as tenants rather than stakeholders. For many, the denial of their right to participate in estate governance is as galling as the financial burden. They wanted a voice. This sentiment spilled into the open during protests at the estate gates. “We cannot continue to subsidize inefficiency and fraud,” declared RGERA spokesperson Chuka Nwokolo. Placards demanded transparency, fairness and the right to self-govern. Some branded Trojan’s control “developer dictatorship.”

Among residents, one solution gained traction: bypass Trojan and Broll altogether by allowing EKEDC to meter homes individually as is done in nearby estates like VGC and NICON Town. Each household would then pay for its own usage leaving Broll responsible only for common-area costs. But Trojan resisted.

Attempts to get Trojan to comment on the allegations were not successful. Several calls were made the company’s mobile phone number on its website, but nobody picked nor responded later.