MICHAEL AKINOLA
Nigerian Diaspora investors in the United State of America have threatened to petition the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI ) and Homeland Security against the Federal Ministry of Works and the Minister, Engr David Umahi, over their $250m investment, which is under threat due to the alleged diversion of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in the Okun Ajah area of Lagos State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the group also threatened to continue to fight for their rights and the miscarriage of justice until it gets international attention and the right thing is done.
The investors stated this during a protest in Chicago, USA, less than two weeks after similar protest was staged in Houston, Texas. The aggrieved investors also appealed to President Bola Tinubu to consider the plight of hundreds of Nigerians investors and foreigners, who keyed into his Renewed Hope Agenda and repatriated direct investments into the country.
They also called on the President to immediately institute high profile investigations into the circumstances surrounding the diversion of the road from the earlier earmarked and Gazetted route.
The investors also want the President to intervene and fulfil the promises he made to Nigerians in Diaspora regarding investment security and economic contributions to the country.
Facilitator of the Direct Foreign Investment, Engr. Stella Okengwu, while speaking during the latest protest, noted that the destruction of the investment by foreigners and Nigerians abroad is sending a wrong signal about the country to the international community.
Okengwu, who is the Chairman/CEO of Winhomes Global Services said, “I want to tell the world that the place is sold out and I am fighting for the justice of investors worldwide”.
“How can you tell an American, who loves Nigeria and came down to Nigeria to invest, that the Nigerian Government has taken their property? I term this an investment scam and we will get to the bottom of it.”
She also continued, “Even if the Nigerian government is not doing anything about it, we will make sure we get international attention. We will get Homeland Security and the FBI to investigate this investment scam that is happening in Nigeria.”
“We will continue talking. Even if it means going around the states of America to make sure that this impunity is stopped, because this is not an overriding public interest but a private interest.”
“If you go through those perimeters, I have videos of almost 400 houses demolished. I am standing for the innocent Nigerians, who built along the perimeters who have their documentations.”
“Some of their houses are N200m and above, they were paid N26m and N31m, which I will personally start doing videos to show the world what is happening.”
“We love our country and want to come back. But tell me what we are going to show when you tell someone to come and invest and tell the person you have a CofO and the governor’s consent. Nobody will believe you.”
Another protester, Oluwadare Joseph, expressed his worry at the silence of the President on the plight of the hundreds of Nigerians, whose efforts to invest in Nigeria is under threat.
He also called on the President to order an immediate investigation into the allegations of bribery and corruption in the events that led to the diversion of the road.
Adekunle Adeleke, popularly known as Nairaflash, also appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “not to allow the misdeeds of some government officials to discourage investments in Nigeria”.
He noted that what many of them had worked for, over the years in the United States of America, is about to go down the drain.
An American investor, Kimberly Stark, while expressing her regrets in investing in Nigeria, called for the immediate remedy of the situation to encourage other non-Nigerians to invest in the country.
She also called on the government to investigate allegations of bribery and corruption against some top government officials.