TRANSPORTATION
Berates Dave Umahi on environmental assessment, criticism of Peter Obi
THE League of Anambra Professionals, a community development-oriented organization, has questioned the rationale behind the multi-trillion naira Lagos-Calabar Highway contract hastily handed to a private civil engineering company.
The transparency and decision to begin the project at a time millions of Nigerians are groaning as a result of the economic impact of some of the anti-people policies of the federal government have stirred the opinions of well-meaning Nigerians like the League of Anambra Professionals.
The group said in a statement signed by Chijioke Okoli, SAN; Orji Nnewi and President of the Association and made available to Realnews that the federal government, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, should ensure that some of the policies that affect the livelihoods of Nigerians have human face.
“Why, for example did the federal government abandon the original route through the first 10 or so kilometers of the road at its start in Victoria Island, Lagos and embarked on a very controversial new route resulting in the destruction of otherwise secured properties at avoidable huge costs and destruction of livelihoods,” the association said.
The group also stressed the need for a general bidding of such gigantic contract rather than the slop-sided nature of the contract award.
“Why was there no competitive bidding for such a strategic, generational project? When was the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, done, if at all? What is the exact total cost of the project? Why is it a priority of the Tinubu’s government, all factors considered, including the fact that it is a grand duplication of the unfinished East-West Road and between Victoria Island and Epe, a duplication of the equally coastal Lekki-Epe highway?”
The House of Representatives, it could be recalled, launched an investigation into the project to ascertain if procedures were followed in the award of the contract, which was handed to Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Limited – founded by the Chagoury Group in 1988 and estimated to be awarded at the cost of N15 trillion.
The group expressed dismay by the claims of the minister of works, David Umahi, that the Environmental Impact Assessment was executed by the federal government.
“There are just too many questions and for which Dave Umahi the minister of works did not provide any answer.
“The discerning public and the main opposition politicians expectedly took the federal government to task.
“The Lagos-Calabar Highway is about 700km and will traverse eight states of the federation, starting from Lagos and terminating in Calabar in Cross River State.
“It was bad enough that Umahi was not making much sense, such as in his claim of the EIA, a necessarily very public process, but which no one knew when it was purportedly done,” the statement said.
The organization condemned the attack on the person of Peter Obi, a former Anambra state governor and the seeming ethnic attack on the Igbo tribe.
“What was well beyond the pale was his response to Peter Obi. Instead of sticking to politics, he deviated into dog-whistling and ethnic-baiting Ndigbo, accusing Peter Obi of inciting them into hatred of Tinubu’s government.
“Peter Obi in our view essentially only accused the federal government of gross misplacement of priorities with the coastal road project, and what that had to do with Ndigbo that Umahi had to drag them into his response to Obi begars belief.
“Umahi thinks that his best evasive tactic is indulgence in ethnic bating of Ndigbo. If Ohanaeze Ndigbo had nay relevance, then they not only must have a word with Umahi and insist that he tenders a public apology not only to Ndigbo, but to all Nigerians for deceiving and trying to distract them from insistence on their rights as citizens to question how their money is being utilized, especially on such an unprecedentedly grand scale,” the statement added.
I.O
19th MAY 2024
Tags: Chijioke Okoli Dave Umahi League of Anambra Professionals
