₦15 Trillion Lagos-Calabar Highway: PDP Demands Probe, Accuses Tinubu Govt Of Secrecy

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged the federal government to be transparent and accountable to Nigerians on the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.

A statement on Thursday by the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, said the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has failed to meet statutory requirements for transparency, accountability, and service delivery.

Naija News reports that Wabara made the submission against the backdrop of the recent disclosure by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, that the Lagos-Calabar highway project will be rerouted through the existing East-West road from Ondo into Edo State.

However, Wabara stated that the development is a pointer to the “pervading culture of arbitrariness in the management of the affairs of the nation by the current administration, where contracts are awarded and mobilized without adherence to due process and statutory appropriation by the National Assembly.”

The statement added that the move to reroute the project shows that it took off without a proper engineering design and approved environmental impact assessment.

“The Board condemns the award of the contract of a project as huge as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway without approved engineering design, without an environmental, economic and social impact assessment, without transparent, open and competitive bidding process as required by the Public Procurement Act 2007 and without the statutory appropriation by the National Assembly.

“The move by the Federal Government to realign the Lagos-Calabar Highway to existing road, citing climate change and other environmental issues further confirms that the project took off without a proper engineering design and approved environmental impact assessment.

“The Board holds that awarding the contract and mobilization of funds without National Assembly approval, due process and proper environmental impact assessment is a gross abuse of office and a huge indictment on the integrity of the APC administration.

“The secrecy, lack of public accountability and utter disregard for statutory frameworks are alarming and unacceptable in a democracy.

“The Board emphasizes that critical national infrastructure cannot be implemented through arbitrary directives or shielded from public scrutiny while ordinary citizens grapple with unprecedented economic hardship,” it added.

The PDP BOT therefore challenged the Tinubu-led government to tell Nigerians the truth about the Lagos-Calabar project.

“The BoT therefore demands for a full investigation into the violations surrounding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project. Nigerians deserve to know the truth,” the statement signed by Wabara concluded.