“If, for whatever reason, at whatever point, you felt hurt, whether it was me or somebody else, I would say I’m sorry.”
With those words, Dr. Stephen Akintayo finally broke his silence. The Gtext Holdings founder delivered the apology on an Instagram Live with business coach Dr. Olumide Emmanuel, after more than a week of public allegations from former staff of unpaid salaries, unremitted pensions and poor treatment.
It did not come unprompted. Emmanuel pushed him.
“You, Stephen, I think that you owe people an apology,” Emmanuel said, pointing to buyers who had not received their land and people the company had failed to pay for economic or business reasons. He told Akintayo to apologise and seek their support as he navigated the season, warning that emotional intelligence matters most when people have put in their hard-earned money. “The way you say it, the way you discuss with them is also very, very important.”
Akintayo turned to his former employees. He insisted there was never any intention to hurt anyone, and said he knew clearly that the company had good intentions.
Then he reached for his record.
“I remember 2021. I personally went to shop for an office and accommodation for our staff in Banana Island,” he said. “I believe in running businesses that are well structured, that people who work in the company can have a sense of ownership.”
The apology came with a pointed caveat. Akintayo said some former staff had later told him they never dealt with him directly, and that when he reached out to them, he learned of unpaid salaries for the first time. He said he has evidence of those conversations.
“I said, but you never told me they didn’t pay your salary,” he recounted. “It’s better you tell me than you, as a former staff, go on social media and say they didn’t pay my salary. Whatever is the issue, the least thing you can do is just to let me know.”
He closed by apologising again to anyone who felt offended.
Nowhere in the clip did he name a figure, a payment date or a plan.
The storm started with one woman. Victoria, a former Gtext Homes employee, said that after she called out the company on TikTok, HR paid her ₦395,000 in outstanding salary and then demanded a public apology. She had already deleted the post. Gtext told her in an October 3 email that “the removal of the post does not resolve the concerns arising from the publication.”
That is the irony now hanging over Akintayo’s Live. A week ago, his company wanted an apology from the worker it owed. Now the founder is the one saying sorry.
Lawyer and activist Festus Ogun had called the apology demand “callous and diabolical,” arguing that Gtext forced Victoria to delete her post and still expected contrition, after settling three months of pay only once the post went viral.
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Other former staff followed her lead. They accused the company of withholding salaries, ending contracts without cause and publishing material that cast them in a bad light. Paul Ndibuagu claimed he was made to dock colleagues’ pay for missing Sunday meetings, and said pension deductions appeared on staff contracts while remittances never arrived. A former finance worker told FIJ that offer letters listed tax and pension remittances, but the HR manager admitted the deductions were being taken and not paid over.
These remain allegations. No labour court or regulator has ruled on them.
Gtext’s first response was combative. The company told FIJ the claims were false and part of a coordinated smear campaign by aggrieved ex-staff, some of whom it said left without regularising their exits and kept company property. Akintayo himself did not answer FIJ’s calls or WhatsApp messages at the time.
Emmanuel’s challenge covered two groups: employees and buyers. Akintayo’s apology, as heard on the Live, addressed only the first.
The second group is not small. A US-based Nigerian nurse petitioned the Inspector-General of Police in December 2024, accusing Akintayo and associates of collecting $21,500 for a Dubai apartment and then cutting off contact. Another report put the petitions over Dubai property deals above $115,000. Gtext and Akintayo reject the fraud claims, and their lawyers stress that neither has been indicted or convicted.
Akintayo has said sorry. His former staff, and the buyers still waiting on land, will judge it by what lands in their bank accounts next.
