The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway dispute has spilled into Nigeria’s 2027 election debate, with Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri accusing former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke of seeking political rehabilitation through a presidential bid.
Diri made the accusation during the 200th session of the Bayelsa State Executive Council in Yenagoa. On Oct. 22, Bayelsa Government New Media posted the remarks to its Facebook page, including Diri’s line: “You pretend to be a presidential candidate so that at the end of the day you can be rehabilitated.”
The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) said June 6 that its National Working Committee had confirmed Duke as the party’s 2027 presidential nominee after reviewing its primary appeal process.
Duke’s objections center on whether the project is affordable and how it can be engineered across Bayelsa’s swampy terrain. In an ARISE News interview, he said, “It’s not that you can’t build a road across Bayelsa, but it’s just not affordable.” He also questioned why a new route was needed when a road to Calabar already exists.
In a written reply to Premium Times, Duke said Diri had misread his comments; the outlet reported that he still viewed the road as worthwhile, though financially infeasible at present.
To defend the project’s feasibility, Diri pointed to road and bridge work in Bayelsa’s difficult terrain as evidence of the state’s construction experience. He has also said reconstruction of the East-West Road should go forward separately from the coastal highway.
The route dispute also concerns how those projects connect. TheCable reported Oct. 13 that Works Minister Dave Umahi attributed a 400-kilometer addition to President Bola Tinubu’s decision to fold the East-West Road into the coastal project. Umahi said the change was an extension, not a realignment.
