The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has said that the Federal Government did not destroy any property belonging to Landmark Africa during the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
Umahi made this disclosure during the inauguration of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Phase 1 in Lagos on Saturday.
“We did no harm to Landmark Property. In fact, as you are going sir, you will see where this dual carriageway is divided into two.
”It is by your order that we should save as much infrastructure as possible even though they violated the gazetted route, we did that,” Umahi said.
According to Umahi, what was affected was Landmark’s encroachment on the front shoreline.
“The Landmark infrastructure is intact, what went off was their encroachment on our front shoreline.
”And the Supreme Court ruled that 250 metres from the shoreline belong to the Federal Government, and so we didn’t do that,” he added.
Umahi disclosed that a total of N18 billion has been paid in compensation for the Phase 1 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
He said that by law, the Federal Government was not supposed to pay compensation for shanties along the road, but President Bola Tinubu directed that compensation should be paid.
The minister announced that the President has ordered the governors where major Federal Government projects pass through their states to give a minimum of 500 metres from the edge of the carriageway, which would be part of the tolling arrangement.
