Residents of Okun-Ajah in Eti Osa Council Area of Lagos have protested in front of the Lagos office Federal Ministry of Works on Lagos Island demanding that the 2006 alignment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway be followed without deviation.
The protesters in their hundreds and with various banners accused the Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi of trying to protect law breakers who bought land on the aligned coastal road.
They said the Minister lied when he said underground telecommunications cables were being protected with the new alignment and that there was no such infrastructure in Okun-Ajah.
One of the protesters, a legal practitioner, Mr Bolanle Olugbani said the gazette demarcating the coastal road was done twenty-six years ago and still remained the law and there was no reason to change it.
He accused the Minister of taking sides with some of his people who built on the coastal road alignment and now wanted to demolish houses of people who avoided the alignment.
A resident and landlady at Okun-Ajah, Memunat Usman-Ologuro said the federal government wanted to punish her and about five hundred others for obeying the law while those who encroached on the coastal road alignment were being protected by the Minister.
She said she would not allow the Minister to use her property as a sacrificial lamb because she did the right thing from the onset by not building on the coastal road.
The Akinrogun of Okun-Ajah, Chief Abraham Ojediran said it was unfair and unjust for the government to demolish his property when he did not do anything wrong.
He said at 82 years old, the government wanted to render him homeless even when he had not done anything wrong.
Responding to the issues raised by the protesters, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mrs Olukorede Kesha said the Minister, David Umahi, was aware of the complaints and would invite the stakeholders to a meeting next week to address them.
The residents appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter as he was the governor of Lagos State who gazette the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in 2006.
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