According to Engineer David Umahi, Minister of Works, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is being built with the ecology in mind.

Umahi stated that they are relocating as far away from the ocean as feasible in order to prevent harm to the aquaculture during an on-site evaluation of the current infrastructure projects in Lagos on Friday.

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As you can see, we are treating the environment with the utmost regard when it comes to disruptions of the aqua life within the corridor.

“You know, we are moving a lot of distances away from the ocean so that we can live in harmony with the animals.”

“Remember that we have a comprehensive ESIA on the entire corridor, and the ESIA has instructed us on what to do and what not to do,” he said.

Reiterating that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway’s first segment will be finished by May 29, 2025, the Minister clarified that they needed to work with Hitech to make some design changes to avoid another undersea cable disruption like the one that occurred a while back.

As you may remember, we experienced a cable issue around a month ago that caused network disruptions across West Africa. I don’t want to face that obstacle once more.

When we reached kilometre 16, we found that there are numerous cables coming from the ocean, including MTN and African networks. Rather than following the corridor’s design, which was gazetted 25 years ago by the time these cables were removed, we consulted with the community and high tech, and ultimately decided to detour around the coastline.

He went on to say, “This is the reason you hear people mention that we exited the gazetted route.

because cable networks worth billions of naira are being discussed there. We had to change our course at km 16, and we are now back on track at kilometre 25. You’ll hear a variety of things there, including, but not limited to, claims that we were bought off.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is still under construction, as confirmed by the National Assembly and Joint Committee on Works’ vote of confidence in Mr. David Umahi, the Ministry of Works.

During Friday’s project inspection with the Minister in Lagos, the members cast their votes of confidence.

The members promised the Ministry of Works sufficient assistance and praised President Bola Tinubu for starting the legacy project.

Separate remarks from Senate Deputy Chief Whip Mr Peter Nwenbonyi, Senate Minority Whip Sen. Osita Ngwu, Senate Committee on Works Chairman Sen. Mpigi Barinada, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Akin Alabi, acknowledged that the coastal highway’s construction was never abandoned, despite what some have speculated.

However, in the event of unanticipated events, the lawmakers counselled Umahi to always turn to the National Assembly’s joint committee of works.

In order to avoid needless delays in the highway building process, Umahi had previously urged the lawmakers to look into rumours before summoning the ministry.

He counselled anyone who felt wronged to quit politicising the coastal highway project and to take their grievances to court like everyone else.

He pointed out that the President was generous in allowing compensation to be paid to owners of even unlawful constructions.

Although there are petitions and many people are not interested in this job being done, I applaud those that went to court.

“A legal team lead by the Attorney-General has been in court with them. People want to stop the government from doing everything it wants to do, therefore that is the appropriate thing to do,” Umahi stated.