The Transportation Minister
Rotimi Amaechi yesterday alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan
administration allegedly paid a contractor N34 billion for the dredging
of the River Niger, but did not get it done.
Amaechi said the Muhammadu Buhari administration is spending N100m on the same project.
Ameachi
spoke said in Lagos at the opening of a conference on Fast-tracking
Port Reforms hosted by The Nation in conjunction with the Federal
Ministry of Transportation and Epsilon Limited.
The minister
said: ”When the River Niger was first approved for dredging by the
previous administration, it was approved for N47billion and N34billion
was paid to the contractor. Dancers were called in and there was a
party.
“We are not dredging the River Niger with billions of
naira; we are dredging the River Niger with just N100m. When we flagged
it off recently, did you see us dancing? Was there a party? I just went
to see the governor and told him that the project will start today and
will be finished in one month.
“The governor said he will
accompany me, and I said ‘ok’. So, I asked the governor to flag it off
since it’s located in his state.”“People are wondering how on earth we
are going to dredge the River Niger for N100m when the previous
government awarded same contract for N47billion? But we are going to
dredge the River Niger, using dredgers owned by the National Inland
Waterways Authority (NIWA).
“NIWA has dredgers, but the previous
government preferred to give contractors money to dredge the river with
private dredgers while NIWA’s dredgers were lying idle somewhere in Port
Harcourt.
“The NIWA MD told me the agency has dredgers, but it’s
been hired out to somebody in Port Harcourt. So, we had dredgers, but
the previous administration hired them out to some persons in Port
Harcourt while paying a contractor billions of naira to use privately
owned dredgers at a very high cost.
“I told the NIWA MD that I
will look for money to fuel their dredgers, and work has started. That
is why we are dredging the River Niger with just N100m,” Amaechi said.
In
2011, the Jonathan administration approved the Lower River Niger
Dredging Project from Warri, in Delta State, to Baro, in Niger State, to
four contractors — Fung Tai Eng Company Nigeria Limited, Dredging
International Service Nigeria Limited, Van Oord Nigeria Limited and
Williams Lloyds Technology Company Limited.
Last year, the
Nigerian Indigenous Ship-Owners Association (NISA) accused NIWA of
bungling the dredging contract of the Lower River Niger
from dailypost