An analysis of drone footage and vehicle mileage data tracked by a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, indicates that the commissioned section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway measures approximately 30 kilometres.
This segment, part of Phase 1, Section 1, stretches from Ahmadu Bello Way to Lekki Free Trade Zone, is within the broader 700km coastal highway project spanning nine states.
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Endless controversy
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project has been marred by controversy since its inception.
The project, a signature one by the Bola Tinubu administration, was announced amidst Nigeria’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Many also questioned if due process was followed and whether it was not better to complete the myriad uncompleted interstate road projects across the country than start a new one.
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Some Lagos residents also protested, and some took legal action against the government, alleging wrongful demolition of their properties to make way for the project.
When the government also announced the commissioning, many Nigerians wondered why the government was commissioning 30km of a 700km road project.
The latest controversy concerns the length of the completed section of the road, with critics arguing that the actual distance completed falls short of the government’s claims.
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However, Mr Omokri, a former critic turned supporter of President Tinubu, on Tuesday insisted that the recently commissioned segment of the road measures 30 kilometres, despite alternative measurements suggesting otherwise.
He said his measurement is accurate, insisting that the figures do not lie.
30km dispute
Following President Tinubu’s official commissioning of the 30-kilometre portion of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway on Saturday, 1 June, a content creator, Objectv Media, said the commissioned segment is not up to 30km as claimed.
In a seven-minute, 27-second video, the blogger stated that the actual completed length is approximately 26.27 kilometres, not 30 kilometres as claimed.
“20 kilometres, they said, from VI to the Eleko corridor. The remaining 10 kilometres, they said, from Eleko inward. Gentlemen and ladies, I am at chainage 41.230 kilometres, and Eleko junction is at chainage 47.5. If you look in subtraction, apart from my odometer showing 6 kilometres and a little above because I drove in through the community road.
“This chainage is showing at this point where I am standing, chainage 41.230. If you do the maths, what you have is 6.2 something kilometres. That simply means that the claim that they have completed 10 kilometres from Eleko into this place is not true,” he said.
A chainage is a length as measured by a surveyor’s chain or tape.
Meanwhile, Dany Abbou, the managing director of Hitech Construction Company Limited, who spoke at the commissioning on Saturday, said nearly 20 kilometres from Victoria Island eastward towards Eleko corridor and nearly 10 kilometres from Eleko heading westward have been completed, a total of 30 kilometres.
Obejectv media disputed the claim, saying that rather than the 10 kilometres the federal government is claiming, the actual distance completed from Eleko inward is 6.27 kilometres. It, however, did not dispute the 20 kilometres from Victoria Island to Eleko.
The highway mission
To prove that the federal government indeed commissioned 30 km and, Mr Omokri invited journalists, interested parties and concerned Nigerians to tour the length of the commissioned road with him.
At 8:55 a.m., Mr Omokri, accompanied by journalists from PREMIUM TIMES, Vanguard Newspaper, Silverbird Television, Arise TV, Control TV, and a surveyor, Gbolahan Azeez, who has been tracking the project since its inception, embarked on a tour of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, starting from Ahmadu Bello Way, the road’s designated starting point.
Addressing journalists before the tour, Mr Omokri explained that he invited the media to ensure transparency and verify his earlier claim that the federal government has completed at least 30 kilometres of Section 1, Phase 1 of the project.
“I invited you here to verify for yourselves that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is at least 30 kilometres fully paved on the first section and first phase.
“Everything you are going to see today is probably more than 30 kilometres, but we are just stopping at 30 kilometres,” he said.
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Using his car speedometer, Mr Omokri said he calculated 20km as the length of the road from Ahmadu Bello Way to Okun-Ajah.
Meanwhile, Mr Azeez who used a drone that has an inbuilt distance calculator, said the distance of completed road between Okun Ajah and Eleko is 8km. His drone captured highway markings of 41.300 and 48.985 between both points.
From Eleko to Orimedo, the distance is 1.5 kilometres, and from Orimedo to the Free Trade Zone is 1 kilometre. This brings the total length to 30.5 kilometres.
Speaking with journalists after the tour, Mr Omokri urged government officials to view citizens who raise objections or questions about government projects as patriotic individuals exercising their rights, rather than enemies of the state.
“People in government should not think that people who raise these objections are enemies of the state or illegals, no! They have the right. A lot of these people are patriotic citizens.
“When people raise questions like this, it is not possible to over-inform them. You can only under-inform them. So, give them the information,” he said.
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