The Lagos-Calabar coastal highway compensation list in Okoyong, a community in Cross River South is generating serious tension over compensation list in the area.

This is as some locals have raised issues about the infiltration of “stranger elements” noticed in the list and have petitioned security agencies, the state governor and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

The petition was written by Christ Ambassador Effiong Ekpo Ekpo, President, Association of Concerned Indigenes of Okoyong Community, Vice Chairman, Eyo Ekpo Family and Chairman, Lands Committee, Eyo Ekpo Family.

The petitioners claimed that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project, executed by Hi-Tech Construction Company under federal oversight, has resulted in the acquisition of farmlands, economic trees, and ancestral lands belonging to indigenous families in Okoyong Community.

They argued that payment of compensation was intended to “mitigate” the losses occasioned by the construction of the highway only for the “enumeration and compensation process to be compromised.