The Chagoury Group also leads the Eko Atlantic City project, a luxury real estate development on reclaimed land from the Atlantic Ocean

By Titilope Adako

A faction of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has called for the impeachment of President Bola Tinubu, citing conflict of interest in the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway contract.

The group’s leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, urged the National Assembly to initiate impeachment proceedings, following Tinubu’s public admission that the contractor, Gilbert Chagoury, was his partner.

Tinubu made the statement during the inauguration of Phase 1, Section 1 of the 30-kilometre Lagos-Calabar highway, which is being handled by Hitech Construction Company, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group.

The Chagoury Group also leads the Eko Atlantic City project, a luxury real estate development on reclaimed land from the Atlantic Ocean.

“To the contractors and my partner in daring, it was tough for us… We came together to tame the Atlantic,” Tinubu had said during the commissioning.

Reacting, Olaitan described Tinubu’s words as a clear admission of conflict of interest, noting that the contract was awarded without competitive bidding and seems designed to benefit the privately owned Eko Atlantic City.

“All President Tinubu is doing is building a road to his own Atlantic City. He openly said the contractor is his partner. That means he awarded a federal contract to himself,” he said.

He criticised the commissioning of only a small section of the highway, warning that the project may be abandoned once the portion leading to Eko Atlantic is completed.

“Why commission just four percent of the road? That road leads straight to their private development. If that part is done, they may abandon the rest. This is a clear conflict of interest,” he added.

Olaitan called on the National Assembly to act swiftly.

“The National Assembly must prove that it is not complicit. If they are truly independent, they must act now. We cannot condone this. This is not how to run a democracy. The president has admitted to a breach of public trust,” he said.

In response, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress dismissed the impeachment call, describing it as baseless and “a joke taken too far.”

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