The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has called on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Bola Tinubu over alleged conflict of interest in the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway contract.

The Afenifere leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, expressed disappointment at Tinubu’s recent public declaration that the contractor handling the project, Gilbert Chagoury, was his partner during the inauguration of Kilometer, Phase 1, Section 1 of the coastal highway project.

“All President Tinubu is doing is building a road to his own Atlantic City,” Olaitan said in an interview with PUNCH.

“He openly said the contractor is his partner. That means he awarded a federal contract to himself.”

Olaitan questioned the rationale behind commissioning just a small portion of the highway, suggesting that the government may have no further intention of pursuing the full stretch of the coastal road once the portion leading to Atlantic City is completed.

“Why commission just four per cent 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 insisted.

The Afenifere leader called on lawmakers to take action, saying, “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.”

“I am calling on the National Assembly to start the impeachment process now if they are a truly independent and vibrant national assembly and if they are not equally complicit. We can’t condone such a thing,” Olaitan added.

SaharaReporters reports that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway contract is being executed by Hitech Construction Company, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, which also spearheads the Eko Atlantic City project; an ambitious real estate development built on reclaimed land from the Atlantic Ocean.

President Tinubu, while inaugurating the project last Saturday, praised the Chagoury-led Hitech Construction Company for its work on the road, describing it as a “symbol of courage and commitment”.

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

The project, valued at N15 trillion, spans 700 kilometers across nine coastal states, including Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River.

SaharaReporters had reported that the project Tinubu awarded to his associate’s Chagoury without any competitive bidding, and the contract was awarded on a single-source basis, contravening the Public Procurement Act and Environmental Impact Assessment Act.