Warri Reclamation Thrust and the Itsekiri National Youths Council (INYC) have condemned the decision to divert the Lagos‑Calabar Coastal Road away from the coastline, arguing that the move undermines the project’s original purpose of linking Nigeria’s oil‑producing coastal communities.
Convener of the Warri Reclamation Thrust and former National Executive of INYC, Tsaye Mene, said the diversion was an “insult” to the Itsekiri, Ilaje and Ijaw peoples whose communities in Ondo, Delta and Bayelsa supply most of the resources used to fund the road.
“It is shocking and insulting that the Lagos‑Calabar Coastal Road, which was originally designed to follow the coastline through Ondo, Delta and Bayelsa’s oil‑rich coastal communities, will now detour inland through Edo State to connect to the East‑West Road,” he said.
Mene added that the decision “has largely destroyed the major purpose of the Coastal Road, which is to open up the coastal, oil‑producing and most marginalised communities in Nigeria and bring development, industry and hope to people who have suffered decades of neglect despite producing the wealth of the nation.”
He called the bypass “the highest form of injustice” and urged President Bola Tinubu to honour his promise that a Coastal Road must follow the coast, not become a rebranded East‑West Road rehabilitation project. Mene outlined the original alignment, from Araromi
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
