Gov Diri replies Duke on Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project

Bayelsa state Governor Douye Diri has faulted former Cross River Governor Donald Duke for describing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as unbuildable due to swampy terrain.

Duke had claimed in a television interview that the 750km road could not pass through Bayelsa because the state is swampy and would require hundreds of bridges.

Responding in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, Diri said he was disappointed that a former South-South governor would make such a claim, noting it was driven by politics and not facts.

He said Duke is not abreast of current infrastructure developments in Bayelsa, where his administration has successfully built roads and bridges across swamps and mangroves, including the Nembe-Brass Road, Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge Road, Yenagoa-Oporoma Road, the 630-metre Angiama Bridge across River Nun, and the dualised Glory Drive and roads in New Yenagoa City.

Diri maintained that the coastal highway is buildable and possible, stressing that it is critical to unlocking development in the nine coastal states and riverine communities along its route.

He noted that the project has long been demanded by the Ijaw National Congress since the 1990s and only the President Bola Tinubu administration has taken it up, which is one of the reasons he joined the APC to advance the interest of his people.