The Minister of Public Works, Dave Umahi, has alleged that the former presidential candidate of the Labor Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, was inciting the people of the South East (Igbo) against the Federal Government on the Lagos Coastal Highway project. -Calabar. .
Umahi said this while speaking at the event organized to compensate affected owners of structures demolished to create a road for the project in Lagos on Wednesday.
He maintained that Obi had been a critic since President Bola Tinubu’s administration embarked on the project, describing it as “a job-losing project and a misplaced priority.”
Recall that Obi tweeted on his account that Tinubu is creating more unemployment and destroying investments that paid taxes, as the Landmark Beach Resort, valued at $200 million, was negatively affected.
The former Anambra governor lamented that thousands of jobs are about to be lost, with over 100,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector in imminent danger of extinction, along with 80 small businesses and their 4,000 employees, in his mostly young.
However, the former Umahi responded to Obi, saying that he had done something similar when he was governor of the state and did not compensate those affected.
He noted that Obi was only inciting some unsuspecting residents of the South East against the Tinubu government, warning him to desist from doing so.
The former Ebonyi governor said: “This brings up some of the comments made by my brother, His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi; I’m not supposed to comment on this because some people have already done the work.
“And I know what Arise Television brought, courtesy of Channels Television; presented similar scenarios when His Excellency Peter Obi was governor. He made a statement saying: ‘Any infrastructure that stands in the way of the highway must go. And no compensation would be paid.” That’s what he said.
“But look at me, on the human side of managing the Renewed Hope agenda, we are even paying for people who remain illegally on the coastline and have no infrastructure or valid documents. That’s mercy, that’s mercy… You know, some people obscure advice without knowledge. You know the devil is in the details.
“When you condemn people, you condemn yourself. And that’s what he (Obi) has done. And I think he’s stirring up some people in the Southeast who aren’t well informed. He is egging them on. And he gets them into trouble. And he’s not going to fight for them. Wisdom is a defense. And I want our people to have wisdom because I am involved.
“There is no cruelty towards Landmark, that matters should be buried because I was there. And so we fight as much as possible. Some people even donated property to save its two major infrastructures. That’s gratitude. But some people have taken their side to play politics,” she added.
Earlier, Maryanne, wife of the Young Progressive Party presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, Kingsley Moghalu, had advised investors to stop investing in Lagos State, adding that doing so would be at their own risk.
He had since faced backlash from angry Nigerians, including former presidential aide Reno Omokri, who view the message as spiteful and bigoted.
