Government gives motorists two weeks to comply with safety rules as speeding, vandalism and illegal activities threaten highway operations
By Rareview Energydesk
LAGOS — The Federal Government has given motorists and other road users on the Lagos section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway two weeks to comply with safety regulations or risk the closure of the route.
The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Olufemi Dare, issued the warning on Monday during an inspection of the highway, saying persistent speeding, vandalism, illegal parking and other activities were putting lives and infrastructure at risk.
Dare said the directive followed concerns raised by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, over the worsening safety situation along the highway.
“Within two weeks, if there’s no improvement on all these issues, then we have no option than to come back and shutdown this road,” Dare told journalists.
The Lagos section of the coastal highway stretches about 103 kilometres and is divided into two sections — Section 1, covering about 47 kilometres, and Section 2, about 56 kilometres. The two sections contain 20 major bridges, 10 in each section, several of which are still under construction.
Dare said the road remained a construction site and should ordinarily not have been opened to traffic before the completion of the bridges. He said the government could redirect traffic to the Lekki-Epe Expressway if the coastal route had to be closed.
A major concern, according to the controller, is the speed at which some motorists use the highway despite ongoing construction activities.
He said motorists had been observed driving at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour on sections where construction workers and heavy equipment were operating, despite a prescribed speed limit of 30km/h.
“People who come to coastal road and get to a speed of 120 kilometres per hour on the coastal road, and where constructions are going on, bridges, construction are going on,” Dare said.
“We have said your speed on the coastal road must not be more than 30 kilometres per hour.”
The controller said the authorities had continued to record fatalities along the route, warning that the situation could no longer be allowed to continue.
“Lives are being lost on the coastal road. Almost every other day,” he said.
The government is also targeting the use of the highway as an informal parking area by articulated vehicles. Dare warned truck and trailer operators against parking on the route and said enforcement would be intensified.
He also warned motorists against creating illegal U-turns, saying offenders would be prosecuted.
Motorcycles and tricycles have also been banned from the highway, alongside hawking and animal grazing. Authorities are also moving against shanties and other illegal structures along the corridor. Punch reported that more than 100 Okada riders were arrested on the highway in the week preceding the warning.
Security deployment is expected to increase following discussions between Umahi and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani.
“Beginning from this morning, we’ve started to see the improvement in deployment of police. And we are going to have more,” Dare said.
The Federal Government is also turning its attention to vandalism of safety installations.
Dare said about five kilometres of ClearVu fencing had been removed from the highway, while concrete covers covering approximately 18 kilometres had also been vandalised and taken away.
“They come in the night, they remove the ClearVu fence that was used to barricade the communities from the coastal highway,” he said.
The scale of the vandalism has prompted the ministry to consider changing the type of protective infrastructure deployed in vulnerable locations.
Dare said the government was considering replacing the steel ClearVu fencing with concrete barriers in areas where repeated vandalism had made the existing arrangement difficult to sustain.
“We have to change the strategy,” he said. “In areas where we have block work today, we do not have any problem with them.”
The ministry is also considering CCTV surveillance along the route as part of efforts to strengthen monitoring and deter vandalism.
In addition, the government has approved the recruitment of 40 coastal guards for the first section of the highway. Four guards are expected to be drawn from each community along the route and deployed to work with the police.
Dare said additional personnel would be recruited for Section 2, while previously engaged coastal guards would be reorganised and trained under the supervision of the Lagos State Police Command.
He said some of the guards previously engaged to protect the highway had themselves been attacked by vandals, underscoring the need for closer police protection.
The latest threat to close the highway is not the first time the Federal Government has raised the possibility of shutting the route over safety concerns. In January, Umahi disclosed that the government had previously considered closing the highway but kept it open following a directive from President Bola Tinubu to ease traffic congestion.
The present ultimatum, however, puts the focus squarely on motorists, security and the protection of infrastructure while construction continues.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is intended to provide a major alternative transport corridor along Nigeria’s coastline, but its opening to traffic before all associated works are completed has created a difficult balance between providing immediate road access and protecting motorists around an active construction zone.
The government’s warning therefore goes beyond traffic enforcement. If a highway still under construction is to remain open, motorists must treat it as a controlled construction corridor rather than an unrestricted expressway, while the authorities must ensure that safety measures are visible, enforceable and adequately protected. The next two weeks will show whether stronger enforcement and community surveillance can restore the level of discipline required to keep the route open.