DECEPTION SURROUNDING THE FLAG-OFF OF THE SECOND NIGER BRIDGE

The construction of the second Niger bridge which was flagged off some-time in February by the Jonathan administration to enable easy access to the South-east zone has been faulted by some people especially in the manner in which the project was hurriedly approved without proper environmental analysis and assessment. According to reports from SAHARA REPORTERS ;

The grand deception heralding the shoddy contract award and flag-off of 2nd Niger Bridge has been exposed, Mr Osita Okechukwu told delegates last Saturday during the All Progressives Congress (APC) Enugu State congress, which held at Enugu.

Okechukwu, who is the spokesman of APC South East further reminded the delegates that it was when His Royal Majesty, Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe on February confronted and put President Goodluck Jonathan on the spot over the pledge he made during the 2011 presidential election campaign to the effect that he will complete the 2nd Niger Bridge in four years which prompted him to hurriedly flag- off the construction of the bridge in March.

Okechukwu said that the hurry to cover the empty promise Jonathan made to the South East over the bridge, led to the award of the bridge under an opaque Private Public Partnership with neither Environmental Impact Assessment report ready nor the critical project captured in the federal budget.

'One is at a loss why President Jonathan forgot to insert such critical project in any of his federal budget, bearing in mind that the votes of the South East for him in 2011 presidential election is over 25% of the total votes he got.'

The absence of the 2nd Niger Bridge in any federal budget in the last four years led to bogus cost of the project. Otherwise how can a project ex- president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo awarded for N55 billion in 2009 to Gitto Construction Ltd balloon to N117 billion in 2014?

'One is not happy that APC is vindicated for from day one we doubted the propriety of the PPP contraption; which serially failed in Nigeria. This is why the Honourable Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, in line with due process and best international practices has exposed the grand deception by refusing to issue certificate to resume work, because there is no Environmental Impact Assessment Report.'

Now that the 2nd Niger Bridge has been suspended we call for international competitive bidding and due process to govern the award of the contract.

Mr Okechukwu maintained that sooner or later Ndigbo will discover to their dismay that voting further for the Peoples Demcratic Party (PDP) on sentiment and ancient stereo-types will lead us to nowhere.

Mr Osita Okechukwu
South East APC Spokesman