In a recent statement via his official X account, Paul Ibe, the Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has stated that his principal has been vindicated over his earlier warnings about the inflated cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
In a statement released to the public, Ibe said the recent admission by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, confirmed Atiku’s claims that the project’s cost was unreasonably high.
He stated that the revelation exposes a lack of transparency in the management of one of Nigeria’s most expensive infrastructure projects.
When the Tinubu administration unveiled the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway project, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar raised the alarm that the project’s cost was inflated to an outrageous ₦8 billion per kilometre.
At the time, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, dismissed the claim, insisting in a 2024 interview that:
’You will find out that our cost is ₦4 billion instead of the ₦8 billion claimed by the former Vice President.’
However, the same minister has now done a volte face and admitted that the actual cost is indeed closer to ₦8 billion per kilometre precisely what Atiku warned Nigerians about,” he wrote.
According to Ibe, Atiku had warned that the project was inflated to about ₦8 billion per kilometre, but the Minister of Works dismissed it at the time, claiming the cost was only ₦4 billion per kilometre.
He said Umahi’s latest disclosure that the actual figure is closer to ₦8 billion per kilometre has now proven Atiku right.
Ibe noted that the development shows inconsistencies in the government’s explanations and raises serious questions about accountability.
He added that Atiku had also questioned the project’s financing model, describing it as opaque and designed to favor private interests rather than the Nigerian people. See, More, Here>>>>
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