There is a new twist to the controversy surrounding the construction of the Lekki-Ikoyi Suspension Bridge as the Lagos State Government has told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it paid N10m to the Federal Government to get the FG approval.
The state government stated this in a...
counter-affidavit dated November 13, 2013, in response to an earlier denial by the National Inland Waterways Authority that its permission had not been obtained before the bridge was constructed.
The Federal Government had through the Attorney-General of the Federation and the NIWA, said its permission was not obtained for the construction of the bridge.
Both NIWA and the AGF had said with the construction of the bridge, the state government had encroached into the Lekki-Ikoyi Lagoon, which it claimed was under NIWA’s exclusive authority.
Their counsel, Mrs. Queen Ubah, maintained that the provisions of NIWA Act 2004, gave the body the exclusive authority over “navigable waterways, inland waterways, river ports, including the Lagos and Lekki Lagoon”, upon which the bridge was constructed.
The Federal Government stated these in its own counter-affidavit in the suit instituted by a rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, who is challenging the propriety and the imposition of tolls on the users of the bridge.
But the state government, in its reply, insisted that NIWA gave it an approval for the construction of the bridge after paying the required fee.
-Punch
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