• Doherty raises fresh concerns over cost of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road

Minister of Works, David Umahi, has announced the cancellation of China Civil Engineering Construction Company’s (CCECC) handling of the Port Harcourt-Aba Road project due to poor work quality and failure to adhere to instructions.

He also threatened to shut down other CCECC projects over non-compliance to standard.

However, the former Lagos governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and now a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Funsho Doherty, has raised fresh concerns over the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project, questioning the cost transparency and due process compliance of the multi trillion-naira contract.

Umahi, while inspecting the PH-Aba Road project, on Sunday, told newsmen that the decision was to ensure that Federal Government projects were executed to the highest standards and taxpayers’ money was utilised judiciously.

He expressed disappointment with the quality of work done by CCECC, stating that the Aba-bound section of the road was on the verge of total collapse.

Noting that despite repeated warnings, the contractor has failed to adhere to construction standards, leading to the decision to terminate the contract, Umahi explained: “Their method of construction is a very serious source of concern, where you will do a binder of over a stretch of 30km, and you are not putting on any protective gear. We have issued warnings to CCECC more than 20 times, and we told them the implications of putting on binders without shoulders and without wearing.”

The minister, therefore, announced that the ministry would engage new, qualified indigenous contractors to handle the Port Harcourt-bound section of the road.

He gave CCECC 14 days to rectify the defects and mill out the binder course at their own cost.

“If they fail to do that, I will shut down all their projects in Nigeria. The notice of termination must be issued before Wednesday, and I will publish it,” he stated.

In an open letter dated October 15, 2025, and addressed to the Minister of Works, Doherty noted discrepancies between the project’s original design and current implementation, alleging that “while the number of lanes has been reduced from 10 to six, there has been no corresponding adjustment to the N1.067 trillion contract sum for the first section of the road.”

Doherty referenced Umahi’s recent media interview, where the minister explained that Section 1 of the Lagos/Calabar Coastal Road covers 47.474 kilometres at a total cost of N1.067 trillion (equivalent to N22.5 billion per kilometre) for the six-lane section.

Umahi had reportedly argued that this figure would translate to N7.5 billion per kilometre if compared to a standard two-lane federal highway.

However, Doherty maintained that, regardless of such comparisons, the actual cost to taxpayers remains N22.5 billion per kilometre.

The PDP chieftain also questioned the inclusion and scale of additional components such as streetlights and shoreline protection, noting that available documents from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) indicate that street-lighting accounts for only about three per cent of the total contract cost, while there is no evidence that shoreline protection works are part of the contract.