Residents of Okun-Ajah community in the suburb of Lagos State, yesterday protested at the State House of Assembly over the planned demolition of 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 plan.
Leader of the protesters, Chief Saheed Olukosi, urged the government to follow due process in handling the matter by reverting to the original gazetted Right of Way (RoW).
According to him, a check by the community at the Ministry of Physical Planning and confirmed that their buildings did not encroach on the RoW of the coastal road alignment.
He said that those who deliberately built on the existing RoW should be the ones having problems.
Olukosi said: “We are aware of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s decision to construct Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road and series of alignment verification 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 Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development since 2006/2013 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 has a global C-of-O dated December 2006 No 69/69/2006AC, we have double-checked from 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.”
