The Okun-Ajah Community has appealed to the federal and state governments of Lagos to save it from an allegedly unlawful diversion on the controversial Lagos-Calabar coastal highway contract route, which is threatening to demolish 2000 homes in the neighbourhood.
The Baale Chief (Alh) Sikiru Olukesi Okanlawon, the community’s traditional ruler, and Balogun Kamorudeen, the secretary, indicated that the Ministry of Works was planning to cause them this “injustice and injury.”
The 700-kilometer road infrastructure project would cost an astounding N15 trillion to build and will take eight years for completion.
The first phase of the construction, which has already received N1.06 trillion in funding, began at Eko Atlantic City and will end at Lekki Deep Seaport. According to Minister of Works David Umahi, it is a 10-lane highway that will cost N4 billion per km and be the first of its kind in Africa.
However, a lot of communities and property owners have accused the ministry of demarcating properties to be demolished for road building in an unfair and occasionally illegal manner.
In a press release, the community expressed anxiety and requested assistance from President Bola Tinubu, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, legislators from the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), among others.
“The Okun-Ajah Community was granted a Certificate of Occupancy over their communal land in Okun-Ajah sometime in the year 2006,” the statement stated. The section of the common land designated for the then-proposed coastal road was clearly shown on the Survey Plan that was attached to the Certificate of Occupancy.
The community members refrained from constructing on the right-of-way designated for the coastal road, fully aware that that segment of their land had been given up to a federal enterprise.
The original road layout was altered, nonetheless, as a result of numerous unlawful constructions on the right-of-way. With only five dwellings constructed along the second road alignment and vacant ground across the remainder of the route, the second road alignment was far less developed in terms of buildings.
“Surprisingly, the second road alignment has also been changed because some of the owners of the five buildings and the vacant lands on that road alignment are influential personalities. They have now redirected the road alignment to the residential part of Okun-Ajah Community which will lead to the demolition of over 2000 houses including our ancestral homes and our Oba’s palace.
“The pertinent question that we want the Minister of Works to answer to the whole nation is why should the houses of over 2000 people who did not build on the age-long right of way be destroyed because they want to save five houses and vacant lands? Why? This action is certainly not in the interest of peace, order, and good government of Nigeria in general and Lagos State in particular as envisaged by sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution of Nigeria.
“This is the reason the Okun-Ajah people are calling on Nigerians’ to prevail on the Minister to reconsider his proposed action. The Okun-Ajah people are also calling on President Tinubu to urgently investigate the circumstances leading to the jettisoning of the second road alignment which is much more free of building development and the adoption of the third road alignment which will lead to the demolition of over 2000 houses and the Baale’s palace.”
They also urged the the Inspector-General of Police and the National Security Adviser not to allow law enforcement agents “to be used to inflict harm on the people of Okun-Ajah because our people are prepared to defend their community against the proposed onslaught.
During a stakeholders’ meeting at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, Umahi had described the demolition as “tough decision”, saying N2.75 billion compensation was made for properties on channel 0 to 3 kilometres that were demolished.
“These are tough decisions, but had to be taken for economic value. A lot of people doubted that we will not pay, but we let them know that this is the regime of President Bola Tinubu. We initiated a lot of policies and we are witnessing results,” the minister said.
