Presidency Fires Back At Donald Duke Over Lagos-Calabar Highway

The Presidency has dismissed claims by Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate, Donald Duke, that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway would terminate at Epe in Lagos State, insisting that the project has already extended into Ogun State.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, in a statement issued on Wednesday, described Duke’s remarks as politically motivated and unsupported by the realities surrounding the ongoing construction of the multi-state highway.

Duke, a former Cross River State governor who served between 1999 and 2007 and contested the 2019 presidential election under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), had questioned whether the coastal highway project would extend beyond Lagos State.

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Responding through a post on his verified X account, Ajayi accused the former governor of ignoring developments on the ground by suggesting that the project would stop in Lagos.

“Former Governor Donald Duke, who wants to become President on the banner of an unviable political platform, has also joined the chorus of those saying the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway will not go beyond Lagos State,” Ajayi wrote.

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He argued that political considerations should not overshadow facts about the progress of the project.

“I think politics makes a lot of people say things they don’t mean or believe. They just talk for the sake of talking or because of bad politics. There is actually no sense in arguing against reality,” he added.

Ajayi stated that while Duke was making the claim that the highway would end at Epe, construction had already moved into Ogun State, with work also progressing on sections of the road in Ondo and Akwa Ibom states.

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“While Duke was saying on TV that the Coastal Highway won’t go beyond Epe, the project has reached Ogun State, and work is ongoing on the Ondo and Akwa Ibom State sections of the coastal road,” he stated.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is one of the major infrastructure projects of the Tinubu administration, designed to connect coastal communities across several states from Lagos to Cross River.

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