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IPOB activities caused delay in Niger bridge completion – FG

Published

2 years ago

December 22, 2022

Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola

Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola yesterday blamed the delay in the completion of the Second Niger Bridge on the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The minister said the Monday sit-at-home directive of the separatist group prevented the contractor handling the project to work for days in the past two years.

Fashola said the project, earlier scheduled for inauguration in October 2022, may now be completed between April and May next year.

The minister spoke yesterday as a guest on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily.

The former Lagos governor explained that the bridge itself and the road linking it to the Obusi-end on the Anambra side had been completed.

But the interchange is at different levels of completion, while the road linking the bridge to the Asaba side is still under construction.

He said: “These dates keep shifting and people must remember that on the eastern side, our contractors have not been able to work on Mondays for almost two years and that has affected the completion date.”

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According to him, the deployment of workers on Saturdays by the contractor cannot make made up for the 52 days (yearly) they could not work on site.

The minister further asserted that certain other challenges like relocating transmission lines connecting the East to the West across the Niger River contributed to days lost and added to the snag that affected the early completion of the bridge within the time earlier stipulated.

Speaking on finishing the last four-kilometre stretch of the road in four months, Mr. Fashola said the construction is taking place in marshy land and as such, there is a great need for dredging and sand filling, a process which he said cannot be rushed.

He emphasized that the ministry and its contractors have made great progress on the road so far because they use Prefabricated Vertical Drains which accelerate settlement and drainage and as such, workers can start building quicker than would ordinarily have been expected.

The minister said the road which was temporarily opened on December 15 for the Yuletide, will be kept open till January 1st, 2023 for those travelling to the East from the West.

He said on January 2, the traffic on the bridge would be reversed to enable travellers returning from the East to West to make use of the road from January 3 to January 15 when it would be shut again.

The minister added that inevitably, the bridge would be tolled to ensure that it is maintained to serve Nigerians for many years.

Fashola said: “Inevitably, the bridge will be tolled. That is the job of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) because part of what we are looking at is that we have a bridge that is properly maintained.

“So, this is where private sector capacity becomes useful. They may not be able to mobilise the capital to buy the asset but they are able to mobilise the expertise and efficiency to operate it, of course not without some due diligence being done.

“That was my experience in Lagos when we did the Lekki Bridge. The government built the bridge, but we contracted a private sector operator to manage the operation and collection of the toll.

“My responsibility is to deliver the asset. Government as the owner will then decide how it wants it to be concessioned, and under what terms and conditions.”

Fashola also appealed to the public to bear the pains resulting from the inconveniences created by on-going construction on major highways across the country.

He noted that most of the side roads that feed onto the main arterial roads are either state or local government roads.

According to him, one of the things the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will consider is an “old road” to serve as an alternative route.

“Hopefully, if we get there, I think that will be one option. We mean no harm. The last six-kilometre into Lagos on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, we deliberately left for the last because we knew it was going to be the most difficult to build because of the traffic, the density, and the human activity there.

“So, whilst places like the Second Niger Bridge and Bodo-Bonny Road, which are virgin projects, seem to be moving quite quickly, building through Abuja-Kano, Lagos-Ibadan, Ikorodu-Sagamu or Kano-Maiduguri that are trafficked every day have different logistic challenges.” The Nation

Related Topics:Featured FG IPOB Niger bridge

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BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

metro

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

metro

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

Published

11 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.