*Ondo oil producing communities lament •Umahi fingers pits over 100 metres deep as reason for rerouting highway •SAN alleges ‘economic sabotage’
By John Alechenu
In Ilaje, Ondo State, where wooden canoes still serve as ambulances, school buses and hearses, the 750km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway was supposed to end decades of isolation. Now, that hope is hanging.
Fishermen and oil-producing communities in Ondo said the Federal Government’s decision to divert Sections 4A and 4B of the highway away from the shoreline has dashed their expectation of being linked by road.
A fishermen leader in Ilaje, Agboola Abilogun, who spoke through an interpreter, told Sunday Vanguard: “For years we were told this road will finally bring us out by road, not by canoe. Now they say it will pass inland. Our hope of abandoning canoes as ambulances, school buses and hearses has been dashed.”
His colleague, Olorunfemi Ojajuni, added: “When a woman is in labour at night, we paddle for hours to get to a hospital. When our children go to school, they cross water. Even when somebody dies, we carry corpse by canoe. Government promised coastal road will stop this suffering.”
The communities spoke after Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, confirmed the diversion of 67 kilometres — 27km in Ogun and about 40km in Ondo, terminating around Ondo-Edo axis — at the ministry headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja, on Monday.
Umahi said the diversion was unavoidable due to deep pits.
“I am aware of petitions against me saying I diverted Ondo section. I welcome that. We have no regret for decisions taken on Ondo,” he said.
“You want me to pass through terrain that you have over 100 metres of pits deep, and I have no defined sharp sand to 300 metres, and you expect the cost of one kilometre to be the same cost with road passing through normal terrain?”
He said government is doing filling of over 10 metres with sharp sand and that President Bola Tinubu also directed that continuation from Ondo through Edo and Delta should not open fresh alignment but follow the existing East-West Road to avoid flooding.
Alleged sabotage
But stakeholders allege sabotage. Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who hails from Ilaje, in an open letter dated October 13, said: “The reported realignment will be nothing short of sabotage. For people of Ilaje, it is not merely about where a road passes.
“It is about whether national infrastructure will translate into tangible development for people whose geographical position makes them natural stakeholders.”
He added: “I am not asking Federal Government to disregard legitimate engineering considerations. I am asking that those considerations be weighed transparently against the original objectives of the project and the rights and development aspirations of the affected communities.”
Former Cross River Governor, Donald Duke, also queried: “Now, they have said that they’re going to divert the road onto East-West Highway. Weren’t they aware of East-West Highway from get-go?”
The Ijaw Youths Council, IYC, has warned the Federal Government against the diversion.
A 10-man National Executive Committee of the IYC led by Dr. Doubra Okotete said last week: “We state here unequivocally that the Ijaw nation and the entire South-South will not accept the diversion of this all-important project under any guise. You cannot seek our votes while taking away our roads.”
The Council threatened political consequences if coastal communities are sidelined.
Lending legal weight, a committee of lawyers and stakeholders from Ilaje communities in Ondo State has asked the Federal Government to restore the highway to its original coastal alignment.
Longest coastline
An attorney-at-law, Dr Benson Enikuomehin, who spoke on behalf of colleagues at a press conference in Lagos, said: “It is a known fact that of all the coastal states in Nigeria, Ondo State unarguably has the longest coastline of about 80-100km. It is, therefore, reasonable that the Coastal Highway will pass through the coastline communities of Ondo State before getting to Delta State and on through the other states to Calabar.”
He added: “It is, however, very shocking that the concept of the Coastal Highway has now been bastardised and balkanised by the Ministry of Works. More than 60 per cent of the coastal communities in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State have now been bypassed and sidelined.”
Umahi, however, insisted the project is on track — Section 1, 47.47km from Victoria Island to Eleko completed; Section 2, 55km to Ogun border ready next month; Sections 3A and 3B in Cross River and Akwa Ibom over 40 per cent done.
In a twist, the Presidency on Tuesday clarified on its X handle that at no time did the President direct that the 750km dualised highway be diverted to East-West Road from Edo State, adding that the East-West reconstruction is an additional project and “will not affect complete construction of entire 750km dualised Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as initially proposed.”
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