The Federal Government has inaugurated a dedicated security team, Coastal Highway Guards, to protect the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway from vandalism and other unauthorised activities.
The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, inaugurated the team on Sunday with an initial deployment of 40 officers.
The development was announced in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on New Media to the Lagos State Governor, Jubril Gawat.
The 750-kilometre, 10-lane highway is designed to connect Lagos with Cross River through Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
Gawat said the guards would maintain a security presence along the highway, report suspicious activities, monitor vandalism and prevent hawking, the use of motorcycles and tricycles, and loitering.
He said the team, led by retired General Adekunle Shodunke, would work with other security agencies in Lagos State.
Umahi said the deployment was a full-time security assignment to protect national assets, not an empowerment programme.
The minister had earlier expressed concern over the removal of construction materials and illegal occupation of sections of the highway.
‘We have had very terrible, unpatriotic elements removing the blocks, breaking the fence, removing the rods and treading on the highway. This must stop,’ he said.
He directed the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos to keep motorcycles, tricycles, hawkers and other unauthorised users off the highway.
Umahi said he saw people sleeping on the road during an inspection of the project with members of the National Assembly at about 11pm.
‘No hawking, no occupation illegally along the entire coast,’ he said.
He also urged the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to strengthen the protection of strategic national infrastructure.
The minister disclosed that the Ministry of Works had opened its ongoing projects to scrutiny by anti-corruption agencies.