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The Labour Party, LP, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP caucus in the House of Representatives, and the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, have criticized the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as the Minister of Works, David Umahi, engaged in word battle with the 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 public disclosures on why they are carrying out the project, Afenifere said the project should be stopped for due process to be followed.
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 adopted in carrying out 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.
But in a swift response, 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, indicted 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.”
For the Labour party ex-presidential candidate, Peter Obi, 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,“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.”
National Assembly on the other hand 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 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.
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, 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, 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.”
The PDP 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.’’
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.
