The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, challenges President Bola Tinubu to disclose the complete cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.
Atiku stated in a release on Tuesday that the Tinubu administration should not remain silent about the amount of public funds to be used for the project, especially during Nigeria's economic challenges.
The Federal Government recently announced the beginning of construction on the 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, as reported by The PUNCH.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, disclosed this in a statement last week through his Special Adviser on Media, Orji Uchenna, in Abuja.
However, questioning the contractor, the former vice president, through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, raised concerns about the decision to award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without competitive bidding by the Tinubu administration.
He also questioned the release of N1.06tn for the pilot phase, or six per cent of the project, which starts at Eko Atlantic and is expected to end at the Lekki Deep Sea Port by the Tinubu administration.
The statement signed by the Special Assistant to the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar read in part, “The Tinubu administration cannot continue to respond to the public inquiry with insults. They must come clean on this project because Nigerians deserve to know the truth. I, therefore, present six inquiries to the administration.
“1. What is the total cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway? 2. Why is the project being funded by the Nigerian government instead of a PPP? 3. Why is the project starting from Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic? 4. Why is N1.06tn being spent on the pilot phase, which is just 47km?
“5. Why did the N1.06tn not receive approval from the National Assembly? 6. Why wasn’t there a competitive bidding for the project? 7. Finally, how did the Tinubu administration get the design and the right of way in just 7 months, considering it claims that the previous administrations of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari never touched the project?”
Atiku further urged the Tinubu administration, in line with the Freedom of Information Act, to answer the questions systematically rather than resorting to insults.
The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, advised Atiku in a statement to ensure his information about the project is accurate.
“In his desperation to always want to hog the headlines as a self-appointed opposition leader, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has allowed himself to be led into a blind alley again by his poorly informed aides,” the statement read.
Onanuga stated that Abubakar made “false allusions” about the project in his “futile attempt to denigrate and find faults in the audacious and transformational” road construction initiative.
