Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the head of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), has responded to claims made by an investor who has been affected by the ongoing construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road, stating that all legal procedures must be followed when seeking redress.
On Wednesday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast program The Morning Brief, the NiDCOM boss said, “We were reading the newspapers about Winhomes, and then we looked for the diaspora investors.
Someone reached us and we struck up a conversation after about two months. Our team traveled to Lagos with their representative and a lawyer, and we discovered that the case was in court.
The investor, Stella Okengwu, the Managing Director of Winhomes Global Services Limited, had charged the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project’s minister of works, David Umahi, with contempt of court.
Read more about Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway: A ” Scam ” and Babachir Lawal Alleges.
She claimed that the minister cheated on a court order and violated the law by rerouting the highway into Winhomes’ residential development in Lagos’ Okun Ajah.
Dabiri-Erewa, a former House of Representatives member, claimed the Commission had previously warned the investor that legal proceedings would obstruct any form of intervention.
A woman called me from the United States, telling her that there is nothing we can do if the case is in court.
The NiDCOM boss added that discussion could have ended the dispute sooner by identifying the reasons behind Umahi’s criticism.
We informed them that there was a meeting with the Minister when this first began. She continued, “We’ve done it in a number of other cases.”
She reaffirmed Umahi’s willingness to meet with the residents who have been affected and said, “There must be a way to prove that if you claim to have invested $250 million.” Again, the court has to make a decision regarding that.
The NiDCOM chief criticized the use of media as a platform for attacks on government officials, claiming that doing so could damage Nigeria’s reputation abroad.
She noted that they travel abroad and bring the country down because someone has already sued them for what happened to them.
According to her, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has put a premium on protecting diaspora investments and ensuring fairness.
Source: Channels TV
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