* 24 hours after berthing of first commercial vessel
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, unveiled the Lekki Deep Seaport project in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State.
Buhari arrived in the area at 4:07pm., waved to the crowd, and immediately proceeded to the site of the $1.5 billion project for the unveiling ritual.
Earlier, the president flew into Lagos from Bauchi, where he attended the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally.
He arrived at the Murtala Murtala International Airport, Lagos, at 3:40pm and was immediately airlifted in a helicopter to the project site for the unveiling.
In his address, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, thanked the crowd for patiently waiting for the president to arrive, despite the delay.
He said: “Let me thank our partners that have travelled far and wide to come here for this occasion. The president loves all of you that is why he said he will come and give a presidential wave to all of you, thank you all for coming.
“Mr. President, you can see that it has been a total combination of the Federal Government, Lagos State, and the private sector. And we are happy that this is happening in your time, it started in your time and it has been completed in your time as well. We are indeed excited that the vessels that will be coming in here will be four times bigger than the size of the vessels that have been coming to the TinCan and Apapa ports.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had confirmed that the first commercial vessel berthed at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.
The authority confirmed the development on its official Twitter handle.
It read: “Ahead of the President’s commissioning of @LekkiPort for commercial operations tomorrow, one of the largest container vessels, the CMA-CGM, has berthed at the port.
“Once more, @NigerianPorts has proven that it is prepared to offer marine services for seamless port operations. https://t.co/jEv99qwJdv,” it said.
The Lekki Deep Seaport is a state-of-the-art facility, the largest seaport and one of the biggest in West Africa.