Coastal Road: Affected property owners seek commensurate compensation

Affected property owners on the alignment of the Lagos- Calabar Coastal Road are canvassing for commensurate compensation over their loss.

The affected persons, present at the National Assembly Joint Committee on Works and the Federal Ministry of Works’ stakeholders’ engagement on Sunday,  decried the meagre money given to them as compensation.

They also complained about the shifting of the road’s alignment from the original plan, describing meagre  money being made available for compensation as ridiculous.

Speaking during the question and answering session, Sola Enitan, a lawyer and valuer, commended the Minister of Works, David Umahi, for the good jobs he doing, but told the minister to increase payment of compensation to the affected property owners to reflect the current reality.

He said it was saddening that after the demolition of people’s property, government would come up with a meagre amount that cannot even pay for their rent.

In response, the minister said correct evaluation/ assessment of properties was fine and that payment of compensation followed the due process.

He said the cost of compensation had increased from the initial N8 billion to N18 billion, representing N10 billion increase.

While assuring them the payment of the remaining compensation,  he appealed to the affected property owners to cooperate with the Federal Government.

Umahi also said within the next 10 days, the ministry would complete the payments of compensation of all enumerated affected properties, adding that the review of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of the highway will take care of all concerns.

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