Landmark employees protest as FG begins sand filling for Lagos-Calabar highway

Some employees of the Landmark Beach Resort in the Oniru area of Lagos commenced a protest on Wednesday as the federal government begins the sand filling of the beachfront for the construction of the coastal highway. 

Scores of employees at the beach resort carried placards with inscriptions ‘#SaveLandmarkBeachResort’ and ‘Save Our Jobs’, and chanted songs of dissent in unison. 

The 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal highway is expected to run through nine states and would have a railroad running through the middle.

Earlier this month, Dave Umahi, minister of works, said the project will not affect the Landmark facilities, adding that the project’s corridor has been reduced to 50 meters and only the shoreline could be lost.

“What could be lost is the shoreline and people that go to play at the shoreline, but his (Landmark CEO) facilities are all intact because we reduced the corridor to 50 meters. I saw it, there is no permanent structure, other than a few shanties along that shoreline that would be affected,” Umahi said in an interview on Arise Television.

“So I told him no single job will be lost because all his distance is very much intact. There is no single one of them that is to be demolished.”

In an interview with Arise Television on April 7, Paul Onwuanibe, the chief executive officer of Landmark Africa, said the original plan for the coastal highway did not include the beachfront.

The businessman who obtained the land in 2007 said “the alignment was changed so that instead of it running on the land side of Landmark, it is going to run on the beach side”.

“So that is where this issue came up is that the alignment was changed. Our request is simply to go back to the original alignment, nothing is wrong with it,” he added. 

“Now they are looking to put the road on the beachfront and just immediately after Landmark it turns and goes back to its original alignment.

“Going back to the original alignment saves our business and saves the government a lot of money.”

In a series of posts on X, Onwuanibe described the highway as a “laudable project that should enhance tourism rather than destroy it”, adding that the management of Landmark is in “active talks” with the state and federal governments.

He said the government has assured him that there would be no disruption to his business and “a small number of other minor reroutes may be required to sustain the existing socioeconomic activity along the course of this road”.

Meanwhile, Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, had accused President Bola Tinubu of placing his personal business interest ahead of Nigerians with the coastal highway project.

The former presidential candidate added that the project will lead to a loss of over 12,000 direct and indirect jobs and over $200 million in investments.