The ongoing construction of The Second Niger Bridge may be suspended until the integrity of the bridge is sorted out, the federal government said on Wednesday.
According to the Director-General of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Aminu Diko, the reasons range from the actual cost of the bridge, non-issuance of the Certificate of Compliance, non-compensation of the host community and non-adherence to due process in the award of contract were also responsible for the stoppage.
Mr Diko told journalists after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock that the bridge was one of the issues discussed in the meeting.
Noting the importance of the road that linked the south east and south west, Diko however asked the people to be patient with the government.
“We did say yes it is in the commission for regulatory oversight,” he said. “We have been discussing the transaction with the Ministry of Works. But before it can be finalized, the commissioner has to give a certificate of compliance, but we haven’t even done that because we have seen a lot of issues that we are uncomfortable with. We are talking with the Ministry of Works for them to correct it.
The communities around that area are clamouring that their lands have been taken and that they have not been compensated adequately. As a matter of fact, we got a letter from Onitsha Traditional Council complaining that they have not been adequately represented in this transaction. These kind of issues, we are not saying that something has not been done properly, but we need to be convinced that these few problems are sorted properly. We will also talk about the actual cost of the bridge; eventually we have asked the Ministry of Works to review it and justify how much the project should cost.”
