…says no part left out in infrastructural development
The Federal Government has described the South- East Governors’ allegation of infrastructural neglect of their zone as “incorrect, unfair and flew in the face of available evidence.” The Federal Government said no part of the country was left out in the massive infrastructure development embarked upon by the administration. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the allegation as unfair to the central government.
Mohammed, who spoke at the inauguration of local government and ward canvassers for the Kwara State chapter of Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation in Ilorin, the state capital, yesterday, said there had been even distribution of infrastructural development of all zones within limited resources.
The minister described the story credited to the governors as ‘fake news’. “South-East governors are spreading fake news”, he said. The governors had, through the Director General of South-East Governors Forum, Prof. Simon Otuanya, condemned what they called the failure of the Federal Government to implement projects in the zone. Otuanya made the observations while presenting a monitoring report on performance of the 2017 federal capital budget in the zone, noting that the Federal Government has been unfair to states in the zone in the implementation of capital projects in the 2017 budget. Otunaya said: “The capital projects implementation in 2017 did not fare well at all in South-East states.
The roads have remained impassable and so the Federal Government should please do better in 2018 and we hope that the Federal Government will make the improvement.” But Mohammed said the claims was totally untrue and went ahead to list projects currently ongoing in the zone and which he claimed are being solely financed by the central government.
His words: “The claim by the Governors of the South-East that the Federal Government has failed the zone in the provision of infrastructure may have made headlines, but it is totally untrue. His Excellencies were either misquoted or they were quoted out of context. Either way, this allegation flies in the face of available evidence.
“I make bold to say that no part of the country, including the South-East, has been left out of the massive infrastructural projects of this administration. In fact, a total of 69, yes, 69 Federal Government projects are currently ongoing in the South-East. We will soon publish the full list of the projects and the state-bystate breakdown. “Suffice it to say that the South-East, just like other geo-political zones, got N16.6 billion worth of projects from the proceeds of the N100 billion Sukuk Bond, shared equally among the six zones.
I have taken journalists on a tour of some of these projects in the South- East. They include the four roads being rehabilitated and reconstructed by the proceeds of the Sukuk Bond: Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual Carriageway Section II (Umuahia Tower- Aba Township Rail/Road Bridge Crossing in Abia State, Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual Carriageway Section I (Lokpanta – Umahia Tower) in Abia State;outstanding section of the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway (Amansea – Enugu State Border) and Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway Section III (Enugu-Lokpanta) in Enugu State.
“In addition to these roads, we also inspected the N40 billion Aba-Port Harcourt section of the Enugu- Port Harcourt Expressway, a strategic road linking Aba and other industrial heartland of the East with Port Harcourt, the nation’s oil hub. “Let me say that these projects were awarded by the last administration which, however, failed to provide funding. As a matter of fact, a section of the Enugu-Port Harcourt road, which cuts across many states, was turned to a refuse dump before this administration came to the rescue
. “Then, there is the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, which we also inspected. The groundbreaking of the construction of the Second Niger Bridge was performed on March 10, 2014 but could not take off until 2017.
The bridge, which is 1.59-kilometre in length, forms part of the 11.90-kilometre project. The contractor, Julius Berger, has completed the first three phases of the project, which have to do with the sub-structures. They are currently on the fourth phase, which is at 70 per cent completion stage. “Some 310 of the 615 piles designed for the bridge have been sunk while massive sand-filling of the approach road has been carried out to the height of five metres. The target height is seven metres. The project is being solely financed by the Federal Government. “In conclusion, the South-East has never had it so good in the area of infrastructure. Had the previous administrations done even half of what we are doing now in that region, no one will be complaining today. It is alright to ask for more, but it is unfair to say nothing has been done.”