Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway: LP, PDP Rep, Afenifere kick as Umahi battles Atiku

The Labour Party, LP, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP caucus in the House of Representatives, and the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, have joined the criticisms against Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as Works Minister, Engr. David Umahi, took on former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over his opposition to the project.

While the LP urged President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to make full disclosures on why they are carrying out the project, Afenifere said it should be halted and reviewed for due process to be followed, reports Vanguard.

A member of the PDP Caucus of the House of Representatives, and Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Rep Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun), on his part, said due process must be followed in the execution of the project.

Atiku had among others alleged that the fact that President Tinubu’s son, Seyi, and his surrogates are on the board of companies owned by Gilbert Chagoury clearly constitutes a conflict of interest.

Atiku promoting politically motivated false analogies – Umahi

Umahi said Atiku’s criticisms of the project are not only hypocritical but also motivated by ambition and cheap political calculations.

Umahi, who spoke through his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Orji Uchenna Orji, in Abuja, yesterday, accused Atiku of promoting false analogies to discredit the procurement process which led to the award of Section 1 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.

Orji said: “I wish to categorically state that such viewpoints are false analogies, conceived by the fertile imaginations of the former Vice President and which are superficial, hypocritical, diversionary, and undoubtedly motivated by ambitious political calculations.”

According to him, the former vice president‘s criticism of the project award, cost and the firm chosen to execute the contract were based on ignorance.

Specifically, Orji spoke to claims by Atiku that the contract was awarded to Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Limited because of the personal relationship between President Bola Tinubu and the Chairman of Hitech, Chagoury, and that the demolition exercise was done in a hurry and thus was a threat to foreign investment.

He said: “These accusations or rather viewpoints are, to say the least, intrinsically superficial, baseless, self-serving and politically motivated to imprint malice in the minds of unsuspecting members of the public, especially the gullible.

According to him, the Minister of Works had “in different media fora decapitated the insinuations of the former Vice President and other desperate persons when he gave insights into the award process, the unit cost comparisons, the project review dimensions, the demolition notices and compensation plans as well as those affected by the demolition.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project complied 100 per cent with the provisions of the Procurement Act and was awarded based on the EPC+F procurement process, that is to say, the project is an unsolicited bid done on EPC+F.

“Under this model of procurement, the investor provides all the designs, part of the financing and construction, while the FGN pays counterpart funds.

“The bid of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project came through this process. The Ministry received the bid, worked on it, and sent the same to the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP.

“The BPP worked on it by the stipulations of the Procurement Act and came up with a competitive price slightly lower than the Ministry’s price and even lower than the cost of similar projects awarded five years ago, including the Bodo-Bonny project awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.”

LP asks Tinubu, APC to come clean

Reacting, the Labour Party, asked the President Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress, APC, administration to come clean on allegations of impropriety over the award and execution of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, said this in a telephone chat with our correspondent yesterday.

He noted that with the controversy trailing the award of the contract at a time when the economy was struggling, the administration owes citizens some explanations, adding at a time like this silence is not golden neither is a resort to name-calling and propaganda to distract citizens.

He said: “It behoves the government to tell Nigerians the truth about this project. Nigerians need to know whether indeed the contract was awarded without regard to our extant laws and due processes.

“The administration needs to tell us whether indeed it was awarded to a business partner of the president because his doing so would be a breach of his oath of office.

“These explanations are equally required to clear the air because there was nowhere in the 2024 Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the same president where the money for this project was laid bare, except if the budget being operated by the Tinubu-led APC administration is different from the one in the public domain.”

We’ll ensure adequate funding – NASS

On March 29, the National Assembly assured the Ministry of Works of adequate budgetary provision for the completion of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the first phase, which has a contract sum of N1.067 trillion

The Chairman, joint National Assembly Committee on Works, Senator Barinada Mpigi, gave the assurance when he led members of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Works on an oversight visit to some selected federal highway projects in Lagos.

The Coastal Highway is proposed to traverse about nine states along the coastal shoreline of the country.

Mpigi expressed the National Assembly’s support for the speedy completion of the work and commended the level of work done so far.

“The coastal road is real and I can testify that the ministry is doing the right thing. And within the expectant period, it is achievable,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman House Committee on Works, Akin Alabi, said the House of Representatives would work with the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the the two committees on appropriation for adequate funding of the project.

Alabi said: “We are going to work with both the Senate President, the Speaker and the committees on appropriation to make sure funding is not what will delay the project.

“We have seen it over and over again in this country, where you have great intention when you want to begin a project, but along the line, you will run into trouble.

“But this is a project everyone is committed, both the Executive and the Legislature and it must be delivered. We must make sure that every fund released is accounted for. This is the kind of project, a legacy project that will put a smile on people’s faces and we are all committed to achieving it,” he added.

PDP alleges lies around project

On its part, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, condemned what it called the cacophony of lies packaged by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to market the Lagos-Calabar Highway project.

Deputy National Chairman of the party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, in a chat with our correspondent said: “PDP condemns the cacophony of lies(from the pit of hell)desperately told by the inept and clueless APC-led Federal Government on virtually everything, with particular emphasis on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.

“PDP views the project with suspicion on account of its design, high cost, desperate attention, and non-inclusion in the 2024 fiscal allocation.”

Project must follow due diligence, due process—PDP Reps Caucus

When contacted, the Chairman Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, (PDP, Osun) said: “I think that is a very good project but it must conform to all laws on public procurement, public finance and appropriation. The Federal Government must ensure that it confirms all laws of the Public Procurement and Finance Act by the National Assembly. If a good project does not conform to those standards, then it loses its value.

‘’I am in support of the project but I advise the Federal Government to ensure that there is due diligence, due process and compliance with all laws and regulations of public procurement.’’

Afenifere wants project halted

Meanwhile, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has advised the federal government to halt and review the project after several calls by some Nigerians to re-examine the socio-economic and environmental impact of the road.

In a statement by its Publicity Department, Prince Justice Faloye, the Afenifere said it is sad that “despite numerous complaints and objections, the federal government has refused to listen and review the 700 km Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway, but instead is rushing headlong into the project. The $13 billion Lagos-Calar project is not only environmentally and economically destructive, but also irrationally replaces the 1,400km $12 billion Lagos-Calabar railway project along East-West Road, adjudged to be the single most important economically empowering infrastructural development project in Southern Nigeria in over 100 years, commissioned by both the Jonathan (2014) and Buhari (2021) governments.

“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project must be re-examined, for not only breaching competitive tendering stipulations but for also contravening the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, as stipulated in EIA Decree No. 86 of 1992, which places the project type in Category 1 and affecting the natural environment, making an ESIA report mandatory before commencement.”

Afenifere continued: “The 2021 Environmental Assessment Procedures and Charges would have taken six months from May 29 when this administration came to power to secure a genuine approval report, involving a series of stakeholders’ meetings, multiple visits and studies of the environment to be impacted by the highway. The project, in essence, will affect the natural fauna, the coastal mangrove swamps that serve as natural barriers against tidal waves.”

Afenifere asked if the contract awarded in September 2023 had an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and a separate RAP (Resettlement Action Plan) done, as stipulated by law, to know the effects on existing businesses and the beaches of the area.”