Coastal road project: Lagos residents protest planned demolition of properties

Residents of the Okun-Ajah community in Lagos State protested at the State House of Assembly on Monday over plans to demolish their properties for the proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project.

The protesting residents, numbering about 100, said their properties had been marked for demolition and urged the government to shelve the plans.

The leader of the protesters, Chief Saheed Olukosi, urged the government to followdue process in handling the matter by reverting to the original gazetted right of way (RoW).

Olukosi said that the community had checked with the Ministry of Physical Planning and had gotten confirmation that their buildingsdid not encroach on the RoW of the coastal road alignment.

He saidthat those who deliberately built on the existing RoW should be the ones having problems.

“We are aware of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s decision to construct the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, and a series of alignment verifications has commenced.

“Okun-Ajah community specifically has preserved the portion of the alignment gazetted in the survey attached to the Certificate of Occupancy prepared and signed by Lagos State Surveyor General.

“Also, the alignment has been marked by the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development since 2006 and 2013, respectively.

“At no point or time did we receive any formal communication that the alignment of the coastal road has been shifted from the original alignment being gazzetted by the Lagos State Surveyor-General.

“On our part, before we bought the land and erected our properties, which clearly have a global C of O dated December 2006 No. 69/2006AC, we double-checked with the Ministry of Physical Planning that we did not encroach on the right of way of the coastal road alignment. So, our properties should not be marked for demolition,” he said.

Another resident, Mr Ridwan Adekunle, said that approaching the alignment from Ahmadu Bello Way to their community, there was a serious deviation from the approved coastal road by the field officers from the Ministry of Physical Planning and the Federal Ministry of Works.

”They had been following the alignment, but when they got to our community they deviated . They had their coastal road clearance, C of O, and our land is covered by the global C of O,” Adekunle said.

Addressing the protesters, Mr Desmond Elliot, representing Surulere Constituency I, promised that the matter would be looked into at the resumption of plenary.

Elliot assured that the Assembly would call all the parties involved and the issue fwould be fully addressed.