The All Progressives Congress (APC), South-east zone Sunday called for a fresh award of contract for the second Niger Bridge following alleged stoppage of work at the Bridge in Onitsha, Anambra state, as a result of issues relating to environmental impact assessment.
The APC said it agrees with the Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, that the so called contract award and flag off of the project by President Goodluck Jonathan was a faulty contract from the very beginning in a statement issued by Osita Okechukwu.
Okechukwu, the spokesman of APC South East told delegates at the Enugu State Congress that the President hurriedly flag- off the construction of the bridge in March when confronted by His Royal Majesty, Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe over the pledge he made during the 2011 presidential election campaign to the effect that he will complete the 2nd Niger Bridge in four.
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.
He said, ‘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.’
He continued, “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.
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
