The Federal Government has set up a legal team to address the numerous court cases impacting the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, Minister of Works David Umahi has said.

He said the decision is crucial as the litigations risk delaying the timely completion of the legacy road project.

According to him, President Bola Tinubu has also approved compensation for property owners along the project corridor, including those with unauthorized structures, adding that the initiative was aimed at resolving legal obstacles and ensuring smooth project execution.

Umahi shared the updates during an inspection and verification tour of Sections I and II of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway with members of the National Assembly Committees on Works, where the lawmakers expressed their commitment to supporting the scheduled completion of the 700-kilometer project.

Section I of the project is 103 kilometres in length and falls entirely within the Lagos State border.

However, a phased execution of the project was adopted, for ease of construction beginning with Phase 1 of Section I, which is 47.4 kilometres in length; Ch.0+000 (Ahmadu Bello Way Junction, Victoria Island) – Ch. 47+474 (Eleko Village Junction).

Phase 1, Section II has a total length of 55.6 kilometres beginning from Ch. 47+474 – Ch. 103 + 000 (Ode – Omi, Lagos-Ogun Border.)

At the project site, Umahi urged the lawmakers to advise other National Assembly Committees to consult the Ministry before summoning its officials over what he described as “frivolous matters” related to the project.

While lamenting that numerous court cases and petitions are impeding progress on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, the Minister revealed that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice had established a legal team to address all pending cases.

In a statement by the Ministry’sDirector of Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Ahmed, in a statement on Saturday, the Minister also disclosed that President Tinubu had approved the payment of compensation to owners of properties within the project’s corridor, even to those with illegal structures.

While urging the aggrieved to approach the courts to seek redress like others had done, Umahi appealed to aggrieved parties to refrain from politicizing the project.

“We have a lot of people who are not interested in this job being done. Everything government wants to do, some people want to thwart it,” he said.

On the Section II of the project, the Minister also informed the visiting legislators that the President had also approved the extension of the 7th Axial Road passing through the Dangote Refinery, Lekki Free Trade Zone and the Deep Sea Port, built by Messrs Dangote Industries, on Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme, to be linked with the Coastal Highway.

According to him, the two sections will be linked via a cable bridge, as obtained in other climes like Dubai, UAE. (The Nation)