Doherty calls for flood compensation and coastal road probe in Lagos

Summary

Funso Doherty has urged the Lagos State Government to compensate flood-hit residents and businesses and order an independent probe into whether environmental failures linked to the coastal road project worsened the flooding.

Highlights

• He made the call in a post on X after heavy rains caused flooding across parts of Lagos, submerging roads and disrupting business activity.
• Doherty said waste disposal issues may have played a role, but they did not fully explain the scale of the flooding.
• He cited documents he said his legal team obtained from the Bureau of Public Procurement, claiming no Environmental Impact Assessment was available when the coastal road contract was reviewed.
• He said the contract for Section One of the Lagos Coastal Road included a provision for an EIA, but the assessment was not properly done before award and commencement.
• Doherty also called for prompt remediation and fair compensation, with resettlement support where due-process failures are found to have contributed to the damage.
• In separate reactions, Atiku Abubakar expressed sympathy for flood-hit residents, while Lagos officials accused some social media users of sharing misleading flood images from other locations.