The National Youth Wing of the Pan Niger Delta Forum has called on the Federal Government to reverse the planned rerouting of parts of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and restore the original coastal alignment.
Addressing journalists in Benin City, the group’s National Youth Leader, DonBen Donyegha, said diverting sections of the project through the existing East-West Road would undermine the original purpose of opening up littoral oil-producing communities.
PANDEF argued that coastal communities had borne the environmental and social costs of oil extraction for decades and should not be bypassed in a project that was widely welcomed as a major opportunity for regional connectivity and development.
Works Minister David Umahi had cited difficult terrain, deep pits and cost considerations in explaining changes to parts of the route, while insisting that the coastal highway itself had not been abandoned.
The youth wing acknowledged the engineering and cost challenges but said these should not become a basis for excluding communities that had historically suffered from poor infrastructure and underdevelopment.
It demanded cancellation of the diversion, formal consultations with host communities and state governments, and public confirmation that all affected littoral communities would still be served by a genuine coastal route.
The group said improvement of the East-West Road was welcome but should be treated as a separate project rather than a substitute for the original coastal corridor.
