By Babatunde Jimoh 

Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has revealed that the ecosystem is being taken into consideration in the construction of the Lagos -Calabar Coastal Highway.

Speaking during an on-the-site assessment of the ongoing infrastructure projects in Lagos on Friday,  Umahi said they are moving away from the ocean as much as possible not to cause damages to the aquaculture.

“So, in terms of disturbances of the aqua lives, you know, within the corridor, you can see that we are respecting the ecosystem very highly.

“We are moving away from the ocean, you know, a number of distances, and so that we can have a friendly habitation with the animals.”

He added “don’t forget that we have extensive ESIA on the entire corridor, and the ESIA has told us what to do and what not to do.”

While reiterating that the first section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be completed by May 29, 2025, the Minister explained that in order not to have a repeat of disruption with under water cable like what happened sometime ago, they needed to do a few modifications to the design with Hitech.

“So,  recall that in about a month ago, we had a cable challenge that disrupted network throughout the entire West Africa. Wdon’t want to go through that challenge again.

” When we got to kilometre 16, we discovered that we have a lot of cables, network cables, MTN, African network, that is coming from the ocean, but instead of going by  the design of the corridor, which was gazetted 25 years back by the time  these cables were not there,  we sat down with the community, we sat down with high tech, and then we decided to divert the coastal route.” 

He added “So, when you hear people talk about that we left the gazetted corridor, it’s for this reason.

“Because you are talking of multi-billion naira cable networks at that location. So, we had to divert at kilometer 16, and then we now resurface at kilometre 25. And that’s where you’ll be hearing  all sorts of things, short of saying that we were bribed.”

Meanwhile, the National Assembly and Joint Committee on Works has passed a vote of confidence on the Ministry of Works, Mr David Umahi, affirming that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as a work in progress.

The members gave the vote of confidence, Friday, during the inspection of the project with the Minister in Lagos.

While also commending President Bola Tinubu for initiating the legacy project, the members assured the Ministry of Works of adequate support.

In separate comments, the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Mr Peter Nwenbonyi, Minority Whip of the Senate, Sen. Osita Ngwu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Sen. Mpigi Barinada, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Akin Alabi, admitted that the construction of the coastal highway, was never abandoned as being speculated in some quarters.

The legislators, however, advised Umahi to always make recourse to members of the joint committee of works at the National Assembly in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

Earlier, Umahi had appealed to the legislators to investigate rumours before serving summons on the ministry to prevent unnecessary delays with progress of the highway construction.

He advised aggrieved persons to stop politicising the coastal highway project and approach the courts like other aggrieved persons.

He noted that the President was magnanimous in authorising payment for compensations to owners of even illegal structures.

“We have a lot of people who are not interested that this work be done, and yes, there are petitions, but I commend those who went to court.

“The Attorney-General has led a legal team to meet them in court. That is the right thing to do because everything that government wants to do, people want to thwart it,” Umahi said.