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Claim: A Facebook user shared images stating that it depicts the ongoing Lagos-Calabar road project.
Verdict: DUBAWA traced one of the images to a road in the United States and confirmed others to be genuinely from the Lagos-Calabar road construction. The claim is partially true.
Full Text
Years after the idea was proposed, the Federal Government of Nigeria recently launched the construction of the first phase of the Lagos-Calabar 700km highway. Starting from Ahmadu Bello Way in Lagos, the project, estimated to cost N15 trillion and N4 billion per kilometer, will go through nine coastal routes including the Lekki Deep Seaport, Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
Days after the project commenced, Olusegun Adeniyi, a Facebook user shared three images depicting the status of the road. “This is the ongoing 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, Nigeria,” his caption partly read.
“It is a Trunk A road #project designed to be five-lane in some places with railway line provision. It is being done with Rigid Pavement Technology (Cement Technology) with iron mast reinforcement. When completed, it will have at least 40 years lifespan. Nigeria is rebuilding infrastructure to trigger new economic growth. Invest in Nigeria 🇳🇬z.”
Mr Adeniyi’s post has generated 377 likes and 116 comments. While many users praised the federal government in the comment section, Success Emhabino, another Facebook user, not only questioned the authenticity of these images but also the existence of the entire project.
She wrote, “Anybody around that area should verify that project. I don’t trust the Nigerian Government.”
There is a possibility that the shared images may contain some elements of misinformation; thus, DUBAWA decided to conduct this fact check.
Verification
We grouped the images in the following order for clarity:
Photo 1
The first image shows a fully constructed road already in use, with multiple lanes and a two-track railway in the middle. A closer look at the image raised two concerns. First, the Lagos-Calabar road project was only recently commissioned; it would be too early for any use. Likewise, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, has clarified that though there is a provision to build a rail system with the project, the process has not started.
We then conducted a reversed image search linking the source of this photo to an American publication dated Nov. 1, 2022. According to the article, the image was taken at the Ashburn Silver Line rail network, Virginia, USA.
Photos 2 & 3
The second and third images show ongoing road construction at an unidentified location. Workers can be seen operating an SP 94 slipform paver, which is used for concrete surfaces on the site.
We searched through recent posts on Mr Umahi’s Facebook page. On March 29, 2024, he shared four images from a road construction site, including the second image. However, without mentioning the location, he simply wrote, “Trust the process.”
We found a video shared by two YouTubers who physically inspected the progress of the coastal road project alongside Mr Umahi on April 9, 2024. In the footage, we spotted landmarks which matched with those in both images.
A high-rise building is spotted in the third image.
A high-rise building was spotted in the footage.
Conclusion
While the first image was sourced from another project in the U.S., our findings confirmed that the last two images are indeed related to the ongoing Lagos-Calabar coastal road project. This renders the claim partly true.
