Former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani, has said the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is not wasteful.

Sani said this after former president Olusegun Obasanjo criticized the N15.6 trillion project as wasteful.

Obasanjo also faulted the President Bola Tinubu administration for spending of N21 billion on a new residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima.

He said, “State resources are captured and appropriated, with a pittance to staff and associates to silence whistleblowers.

“Typical examples of waste, corruption and misplaced priority are the murky Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on which the President had turned deaf ears to protests and the new Vice-President’s official residence built at a cost of N21bn in the time of economic hardship to showcase the administration hitting the ground running and to show the importance of the office of the Vice-President. What small minds!”

Reacting in a post via his official X handle on Thursday, Sani said the funds for the coastal highway could have been stolen.

He wrote, “I don’t think Lagos Calabar highway is wasteful, taking cognisance that such amount of money for the project can be stolen by one man, as it happened in the CBN in the past.”

ASA