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The Presidency on Monday faulted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s feedback on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Street, describing them as a “misrepresentation of information.”
“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal freeway and Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail are two distinct tasks. It’s unlucky that the previous Vice President is confused concerning the two tasks…we urge him to return to the library for actual information,” the President’s Particular Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, mentioned in an announcement he signed Monday.
Onanuga was responding to Atiku’s allegation that President Bola Tinubu places private enterprise pursuits earlier than Nigeria’s Infrastructure development.
The previous Vice President mentioned the Tinubu administration is engaged in questionable dealings amidst growing the 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal freeway.
Following approval by the Federal Govt Council, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, introduced the graduation of development on the 700km highway.
Umahi mentioned the contractor commenced work following the formal handover of the preliminary section of the undertaking, comprising 47.47km of twin carriageway, to Hitech Development Firm Ltd.
Responding to Umahi’s assertion, the previous vice chairman, in an announcement by his Media Coordinator, Paul Ibe, on Sunday, alleged that the undertaking’s allocation to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Development Firm Restricted (Hitech), devoid of any documented aggressive bidding course of or resolution by the FEC.
In line with Atiku, the Lagos-Calabar coastal freeway undertaking reentered public dialogue throughout the waning days of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in November 2014.
Nonetheless, resulting from his electoral defeat, the undertaking did not take off beneath Jonathan’s tenure.
Subsequently, former President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his dedication to kickstart the endeavour.
“Umahi refused to disclose how a lot the undertaking would price. He solely defined that it will run by 9 states and have a railroad working by the center.
“Most significantly, the works minister mentioned the undertaking would come at zero price to Nigeria, which is at the moment dealing with an all-time excessive degree of debt,” Atiku argued.
However the Presidency noticed inconsistencies in Atiku’s feedback, saying that the previous Vice President had allowed himself to be led right into a blind alley once more by his poorly knowledgeable aides.
The assertion is titled ‘Lagos-Calabar Coastal Freeway: Atiku Abubakar makes his hole level once more.’
“Opposite to the claims in Atiku’s endorsed press assertion, at no time did the administrations of former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan award contracts for the development of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal freeway to any firm at any diversified and revised quantity. So, the query of price comparability doesn’t come up.
“The contract that was awarded was for Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail. The rail was designed as a part of the usual gauge nationwide rail community. The contract was awarded on August 4, 2021, by the Federal Govt Council presided over by former Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, at $11.17bn. The contract was to be accomplished in six years. The undertaking didn’t take off.
“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail undertaking has all the time been on the cardboard. It was one other testomony to the failure of the earlier PDP-led authorities that it couldn’t get it off the bottom in 16 years it held sway,” Onanuga argued.
He added that the Presidency doesn’t anticipate a former vice chairman of Nigeria to proceed to “fan ill-will and interact in divisive politics in his twilight.”
He additional argued that “Atiku queried the choice to begin the coastal highway from Lagos and never Calabar, oblivious of the large affect such will make on export-import move across the industrial zones.
“We’re at a loss as to what the previous VP hopes to realize together with his assertion. Is it not a acquired knowledge {that a} thousand-mile journey begins with a step?
“Whether or not the undertaking begins from Lagos or Calabar, Warri or Sapele, what ought to gladden the center of any patriotic Nigerian is that this necessary undertaking that has been within the pipeline for a number of a long time has lastly taken off.”
The presidential aide asserted that Tinubu will proceed to drive and propel nationwide progress by infrastructural improvement throughout the nation.
Subsequently, he urged the previous Vice President to “act his standing as a presumed statesman and desist from participating in fruitless train that doesn’t add any worth to nation-building.
“As to the opposite poorly researched concern raised by Atiku and his group on the Lekki Concession Firm, we urge them to return to the ibrary for actual information somewhat than speeding to solid aspersions on President Tinubu and his authorities,” the assertion concluded.
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