Lekki Estates Residents Reject Breach of Lagos Coastal Road

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

At 9:20am yesterday, a police van packed with armed men was stationed at the entrance of Goshen Estate, Lekki Lagos. Their presence was expected to forestall likely outbreak of violence following a planned protest by the Lekki Estates Residents and Stakeholders Association (LERSA) against what they called parceling out, allegedly by the Lagos State Government officials, of parts of the land which a proposed coastal road is to be built to ease the flow of traffic within the axis.

Gradually the residents started gathering, responsible men and women, mostly of middle age. The members of the Lekki Estates, Residents and Stakeholders Association are from over a 100 estates and communities around Lekki, from 1004 Estate to Epe. “All we are saying, give us our road”, they chant, calling out the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu. One could feel their displeasure as they marched towards the road in question which they say has been in existence for over 40 years.

The chant continued intermittently while they lamented profusely, bearing placards that expressed their grieviances. They alleged that some private individuals in connivance with some state officials are taking possession of the land and want the state government, as a matter of urgency, to stop the ongoing allotment to private property developers. The breach of this coastal road has given rise to massive illegal building projects and shanties on the road and has brought hardship to the residents due to the reluctance of the government to develop the coastal road, the only access route for some residents in the area.

According to one of the residents, “We don’t want any leasing or anything like that. Coastal road over 40 years we have been saying the same thing all over. So government listen to us, we need this road. We are suffering around Lekki, the traffic is terrible and we have been looking forward to your promise. You promised when you came to us in 2018, you said that you will build this coastal road for us. Now, what we are seeing is a lot of private development on the coastal way. We are not interested in private development.

“This road is important to us. Let the government know we are suffering around here and we need this road badly; that we need it now! All this leasing and private development along the coastal way is a no, no. It is not acceptable. Mr. Sanwo-Olu what you promised us when you came was that you are going to do this coastal road. It is now that it needs to start. That’s why we voted for you. Keep your promise Mr. Sanwo-Olu. We are suffering on the road, traffic is killing people.”

Addressing the gathering, the president LERSA, Olorogun James Emadoye related the scenarios that residents of the area go through. “First of all, you need to know that the only road that cuts across this region is the Lekki Epe Express Road. And if you ever live in this angle, you will know that for you to move out in the morning to go to your office you need to wake up by 5am. So it was a thing of joy for us during the political campaign and the governor, our governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, promised that he was going to construct a coastal road.

“We knew that that was a good thing because if you think of all the activities that is going on currently in the area you call Lekki Free Trade Zone, Dangote Refinery, the Deep Sea Port, the Airport, and all those activities that are said would kick-off very soon, if they start tomorrow, life will become a nightmare for the people of Lekki. Even now life is already a nightmare. And so when our governor Sanwo-Olu promised us that he was going to construct this coastal road, we were all happy and it was one of the reasons we came all out to vote for the APC government.

“But recently, we saw bulldozers bulldozing the roads, and we actually went to church to celebrate that the road construction was going to start. Unfortunately, what we learnt later on was that there is sort of allocation to private developers because of miscreants. Then we came around to say ‘no, this can’t happen’. Even if you want to allocate the road because of miscreants, go down, down the lane to see where miscreants actually are. Not where we have estates that have responsibile people that are ready to maintain the area.

“So, this is the challenge. We do not want this allocation in whatever form, because just like we experienced on the regional road that is now being constructed, there are people with even C of O around the road alignment. And government now was looking for ways to cut into some members’ estate to claim land. And we went severally to government before we were able to solve those problems. And we can see that that is what is starting here now.

“If we allow this so called temporary allocation in one, two, three years, you will hear ‘oh it has become permanent’. Not only that, government will start telling us that there’s no fund to pay compensation. We do not want it. We are ready, as a people who are directly affected by the development on this road to cooperate with government in whichever way necessary to ensure that the road is maintained and life is bearable for people of Lekki. All we are saying is stop this allocation.

“When you allocate a place like this to a church, after one year whether you like it or not, you may not be able to tell the sort of development that will come up on that land. It should be stopped. And government should look through the whole road and see what we can do to ensure that this road is developed… And we have done what we should do. And that is by writing to government. We did write to tell them what is happening. We sent out letters to five different offices and, of course, we have not heard any meaningful response from the government.”

Also speaking on the current development, the vice president LERSA, Architect Olusegun Ladega, said this about the axis, made up of both indigenes and property owners and various interests and stakeholder groups. “We seem to be the government’s baby when it comes to generating income from us. We have one of the highest rates on land use charge. What we are saying, and what we have observed, is that severally along this axis the various rights of way, both for roads and drainages, have been encroached upon with impunity.

“And often at the bottom of this is connivance by persons who have the statutory duty to prevent these activities. Our major concern is that we are told that these allocations are meant to place holders to prevent encroachment by undesirables. But our concern is that going by anything that has happened in the past, this is a very worrisome development. And it is solution fraught with so many dangers. What we are saying is that the state should engage with us because we have proposed our own solutions.

“Many of the estates that this undeveloped areas fall within their precincts are ready to landscape those areas in the meantime. Offers have been made but to our big surprise were that the estates were told that they estates were also told to pay for allocation to beautify an area of the state. We say this is unacceptable. We are calling for an engagement with the state government. All of them are our brothers and sisters, we wine and dine together, and a good number of them in government also live along this axis.

“We know that some of them also go through what we go through. But what we are saying is engage with us. Because we have proven over the years the ways we have managed and governed our respective communities that we can bring the necessary value that will solve this problem. The government has a problem they say they want to curtail encroachment. And we are saying there are security and transportation concerns. We are saying we have the capacity to solve these problems. We have solutions that we have proposed.

“And what we want to do is the state to engage with us and let’s come up with the most practical solutions. Our concern, as we have seen over the ages, so many temporary solutions end up having developing a life of their own and becoming in fact super permanent. So before this people become entrenched and become an interest group that will be difficult to dislodge, we are saying stop now, stop all allocations, come to the table with us and let’s work together both to solve the problem of encroachment and to work on how this road can be developed.

“We have the knowhow, we have the resources, we have the capacity, we have the men and we are ready to work with the state to achieve the objective. We want smooth and fast flow of traffic, comfort and convenience. We want to enjoy the fruits of our investments which on aggregate runs on several billions. So as the state harvest land use charge from us, we also want to harvest comforts from the state.”