Buhari received firm assurances that the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which has a concession period of 45 years, will be completed on schedule by September
By Emma Ogbuehi
A visibly impressed President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday praised the efforts of his Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, towards making the Lekki Deep Sea Port a reality.
Buhari also directed Amaechi to consult and submit a memorandum to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on plans to link the Lekki Deep Sea Port with the railway network.
The President gave the directive after inspecting the deep seaport project, during his working visit to Lagos State.
The President’s directive was contained in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, which was made available to TheNiche.
As part of his engagements in Lagos, the President inspected the rate of work done at the first Deep Sea Port in Nigeria located in Lagos Free Zone, 65Km east of Lagos.
In the course of the inspection, the President received firm assurances that the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which has a concession period of 45 years and sits on a land area of 90 hectares, will be completed on schedule by September.
In January, Amaechi, who inspected the project, urged contractors of the Lekki Deep Sea Port Project to speed up work to enable the government approve all the necessary processes before the 2023 elections.
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“I want to congratulate you for the very huge progress. By the time we came here, there were no civil works; it was just pure sand. You have tried.
“I am suggesting that if you work day and night you will go far and complete the work before commissioning. If the President sees it, approval will be easier.
“You need to speed up the work so we can get approval from the government side before election, process of election will be completed in July.
“This is because by law, six months to election people start politics and if you wait till that time, you won’t meet anyone in the office,” he said.
The Lekki Port is being developed by Tolaram and China Harbour Engineering Company.
The Lagos State Government and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) are also shareholders in the project company.
The port is scheduled to start port operations by the end of 2022.
