Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road: Revert to Original Right of Way, Yoruba Council Tells FG

Bennett Oghifo

A group, the Yoruba Council Worldwide, has demanded that the federal government should revert to the original alignment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, as gazetted.

In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, dated April 22, 2024, signed by the President of Yoruba Council Worldwide, Oladotun Hassan, the group said they checked at the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development where they confirmed that their buildings, slated for demolition, did not violate the coastal road’s alignment/right of way.

According to them, “We are aware of the federal government’s decision to construct the Lagos – Calabar Coastal Road wherein ab initio, proper alignment verification had been carried out from the starting point at Bar Beach, Eti-Osa, Okun-Ajah, Ibeju-Lekki, en route Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, terminating at Calabar coastline corridors and communities.

“The aforementioned communities had specifically preserved the marked original portions of the alignment for Right of Way (RoW) as gazetted in the survey attached herewith to the certificate of occupancy (CofO), prepared and signed by the Lagos State Surveyor General.

“Interestingly, as approved by the federal government, this alignment had been marked by Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development since 2006/2013, respectively, and at no point did any of the aforementioned communities receive any formal communication(s) that the alignment of the coastal road had been shifted from the original alignment gazetted by the Federal Ministry of Works, Lagos State Surveyor General alongside other adjoining Communities that fall within the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Project.

“However, we are aghast, as a body, to note with grave dismay how several law abiding citizens and innocent Nigerians who had legitimately bought and erected their properties, while all the ancestral communities with approved excisions and Global CofO took cognisance of the original alignment, and without any iota of intention to violate the existing right of way rules and regulations, nor commit any trespass encroachments as the case may be, would be subjected to such inhumane treatment.

“We have double-checked from records of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and other ancillary related records and facts, and it was obvious and crystal clear that the aforementioned victims did not encroach on the Right of Way of the coastal road alignment.”