We lost N87bn to Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project – Eko Atlantic City owners

“It is only unfortunate that now the coastal road has come quickly to consume the beach. But our original deposition was that we will be able to get to work round it and there will be a win-win situation but his public utterance has made that impossible”.

“For example, eventually when we finish the Eko Atlantic City, even right now if you have entered it, you will see that there is still a beach inside. We will say, okay, let’s concession it, you can be using it, but we now saw that rather than him (Landmark owner)  challenging the federal government and the ministry of works, that won’t want to even compensate you for any displacement  it is  the person that has been your licencee without collecting money for the land you are using, that you are facing.

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“The ugly part of it is that the story is now being tilted against us; rather than us being the victim, we are now the aggressor. So, that is what has happened and that is the impression we don’t want the public to have, as if we are oppressing this man over the land.”

Akanbi said, “They are painting us as the aggressor whereas we are the victim. It is our land you are on, it is our land you have been using since and that is why I told you about that google app, you can do it yourself and see how the thing moves. So, saying that you have been there since 2008, that means you have been where water was”.

“From 2018, you can see how reclamation was being done, how the land was settled before it became what we are using. So you can’t even claim that you are the one that reclaimed the beach because it was a settlement, just like driving water away then finding yourself elsewhere. That is the same way that the water does and when the wave comes it brings sub-sand and deposits there and that is the authentication of position”.

“He has  been enjoying the beach without paying money. He ought to be paying us ideally from the money he makes on that beach, if we wanted to insist on our right, but we are not”.

Asked if Landmark had taken them to court, he said, “Well, as of now that I’m talking to you, we have not seen any case. You see what he says with his mouth is more potent than the court itself because an average person in Lagos will think that we are oppressing him. That is even more destructive than the court. The impression you create for the people, in fact, some people today see it that way.

“What we are trying to do is to put our own facts out, let people know our own side of the story that we are not oppressing anybody. In fact, if anything, we are the ones that are the victims because they have been enjoying Oniru and Landmark Beach, which by law is ours . Ideally they should be paying us.”

We lost N87bn to Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project – Eko Atlantic City owners

The Nation