The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has stated that the Federal Government did not destroy any property belonging to Landmark Africa during the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

The minister disclosed this during the inauguration of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Phase 1 in Lagos on Saturday.

The management of Landmark, operators of Landmark Beach, sought compensation for the alleged demolition of its property worth billions of naira by the Federal Government during the road construction.

However, on Saturday, Umahi told President Bola Tinubu who inaugurated the phase 1 of the project that no property of Landmark was touched. According to him, what was touched was Landmark’s encroachment on the front shoreline.

“Mr President, I want to state that we did no harm to Landmark Property. In fact, as you are going sir, you will see where this dual carriageway is divided into two. It is by your order that we should save as much infrastructure as possible even though they violated the gazetted route, we did that Mr President.

“The Landmark infrastructure is intact, what went off was their encroachment on our front shoreline. And the Supreme Court ruled that 250 metres from the shoreline belong to the Federal Government, and so we didn’t do that,” Umahi said.

The minister announced that the President has ordered the governors where major Federal Government projects pass through their states to give a minimum of 500 metres from the edge of the carriageway which will be part of the tolling arrangement.

He said that by law the Federal Government are not supposed to pay compensation for shanties along the road, but the President directed that compensation should be paid.

Umahi disclosed that a total of N18 billion has been paid in compensation for the Phase 1 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. (Channels TV)