Abuja-Lokoja-Benin Highway dualisation: Funding no longer a threat – FMWH Director

By Friday Idachaba

The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has assured Nigerians timely completion of the Abuja-Lokoja-Benin highway dualisation project as funding will no longer pose a threat.

Director, Highways North-Central, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Engr Yusuf Jimoh Adekunle, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Lokoja while on a routine check to asses the level of compliance of the contractors handling the projects.

Yusuf said the projects had hitherto suffered setback due to poor funding by previous administration’s but had gotten a new lease on life with alternative funding platforms provided through the initiative of the present administration of President Muhammadu Bihari.

He said, “We have no issues with funding here because it is part of the initiatives of this government. Before the inception of this administration there was nothing like SUKUK but this government has come up with those funding alternatives.

“We now have the SUKUK, we have Tax Relief, we have loans that we got from China NEXIM on some other projects but this particular project is enjoying the SUKUK loan apart from the budgetary provisions.”

He said that he was in the state to see the real progress of work as the project, luckily, no longer had problem of funding adding, “So all we just need is for the contractors to make sure they are working.

“So, this visit is mainly to ensure that quality work is being executed that’s why I’ve come together with my team”, Yusuf added.

Speaking further on the projects, Federal Controller of Works Engr Jimoh Kajogbola, in Kogi explained that dualisation of Lokoja-Benin section one was in two phases.

“We are on phase II now and it is about 41 kilometres. The total length of both phase one and phase two is about 58.15 km. The contractor has partially completed phase one which includes Okene bypass of about 14 kilometres virgin dual carriageway.

The contractor, CGC Nig. Ltd., has completed that except some little little issues which will be cleared but it has been opened to traffic for more than two years now.

Kajogbola said that the last extension granted the contractor was expected to expire in December, 2021.

“So, it is now left for the contractor to work harder to be able to access the provisions made for them within budget and from SUKUK Funding, We have about N2.5 billion to access this year, 2020.”, He said.

Alhaji Yaba Abubakar, Project Manager who spoke on behalf of CGC Nig. Ltd. assured, “By the special grace of God, by December 2021, at the level we are working, this project will be delivered.

Also speaking, Contract Director who identified himself simply as Engr Ephraim, for Gitto Construction Company working on Abuja-Lokoja Section IV, and the last section from the side, said work had attained 76 per cent completion.

Ephraim said the company had been remobilised and the project work was in progress and would be completed and handed over to the Ministry on schedule. #

Igbo youths professionals ask NDIGBOs to denounce Kanu, IPOB

The conference of Igbo youths professionals worldwide has charged Ndigbo’s across the globe to demonstrate courage by denouncing Kanu, IPOB members and all that the group stand for.

This was contained in a statement the president of the group Barr. Maduabuchi Nwodo, issued personally in Abuja on Sunday.
According to the statement,
“The Igbo nation constitutes responsible, law-abiding and patriotic citizens, who are prepared to achieve their goals within the confines of a united and indivisible Nigeria.

“This, we shall achieve through non-violent means, as persuasion and conviction are the tools we shall deploy”.

Addressing foreign governments, especially the United Kingdom and Isreal, the Igbo group tasked foreign governments, to deny the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, the freedom of using the privilege of his foreign citizenship to incite violence against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This was as the group further reminded the foreign nations that Nnamdi Kanu remained a fugitive to the law, having jumped bail that was granted him by a court of competent jurisdiction trying him in Nigeria on a criminal charge of treasonable felony and other related offences.

The group alleged that the separatist leader was taking advantage of his sojourn in the aforesaid countries to cause anarchy and insurrection, through orchestrated incitement of members of the proscribed IPOB.

The Youth organisation recalled that, in the eyes of the law, IPOB is a terrorist organisation, as it had been so declared by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Back home, the youth group reminded both the Federal and State Governments where members of the outlawed group reside, to act more decisively, in view of the extant law proscribing the IPOB.

Consequently, it tasked the military and other relevant security agencies to do the needful, as the law was on their side on the subject matter.

The group said its call was predicated on the latest utterance of the IPOB leader, where he incited police and military officers of Southern and Middle Belt extractions to resign and burn their service uniforms.

“Kanu’s call was unilateral. He was not speaking for the Igbo Nation but for himself.
We are disturbed at the incessant inciting statements coming from Mr Nnamdi Kanu, who has been parading himself as leader of Indigenous People of Biafra against the Nigerian state.

“We are aware of his status as a citizen of both the United Kingdom and the Nation of Israel. Having worked and contributed effortlessly to see Nigeria at its present state, we believe that the United Kingdom and Israel would not want to see Nigeria a shattered place. It is in this regard that we are strongly appealing to them to rein in on Kanu, whose activities have been against the unity of Nigeria.

“The latest call by Mr Kanu on the police and military officers of Southern and Middle Belt extractions was not only to abandon their duty post but to also resign and burn their service uniforms must be ignored. We wish to inform them that Kanu is alone in his cessation project and has nobody behind him,” the Youth group said.

Describing Kanu as a fugitive who escaped the law after being granted bail following his arrest and detention over treasonable felony, the Conference of Igbo Youth Professionals insisted that Israel and the UK can turn in the IPOB leader given that he was in the nation’s wanted list.

Even as it admitted that the South East region had not had its fair share in the one Nigeria project, the Igbo group said the pursuit of inclusive government must be channelled through appropriate lawful means.

“Though our people are highly marginalized and deserve the right for agitation, but that must be done legally and by the appropriate people not a deviant young man like Nnamdi Kanu who is out for his selfish interest,” it said.

It informed the foreign nations that Kanu was barred by a Federal High Court in Abuja from participating in, or addressing public rallies or protests, as part of the conditions for his bail, a development it regretted, had been ignored.

“Kanu has always lamented the treatment of people from the South East zone by the Nigerian government and by other Nigerians. This formed the reason for his agitation for a country of his own.

“However, while Kanu has a right to legally clamour for whatever he believes in, he should also know that the Igbo Nation has recognized spokespersons in the forms of the governors, legislators and Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group. Any serious statements are supposed to come from these people after extensive consultations”, the group noted

Just as the group has thrown its support behind the lawful efforts by security agencies to check the excesses of IPOB members across the South East, and some contiguous states.

“We, therefore, call on our brothers from the other parts of the country, to recognise our cry agaisnt marginalisation, and support our course to produce the next President come 2023.

“Also, we call on the federal government to reflect the federal character principle in all appointments, to give Ndigbo the opportunity to serve their fatherland”.

PDP kicks against new pump price regime for fuel

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the increase in the pump price of fuel as it urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the increase from N159 to N170 per liter.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, on Friday in Abuja, described the new price regime as unbearable to Nigerians.
Ologbondiyan said it was also unacceptable given the prevailing economic crunch already confronting Nigerians.
According to him, the increase in the pump price would worsen the already “suffocating economic” situation in the country adding that such a hike would be an additional log tied on the economic neck of Nigerians.
Ologbondiyan insisted that the government had no justification to increase the cost of fuel to anything above N100 per liter, let alone N170.
He said that there was no such justification when there were practical options to maintain affordable prices given Nigeria’s production capacity and potentialities.
Ologbondiyan decried the continuous increase in the pump price of fuel.
He added that government had yet to come clean on the parameters being used for the hike in prices vis-a-vis Nigeria’s production, export, and accruing revenue.
He said that energy officials had withheld the facts regarding the status and volume of oil production, sales, and accruing revenue.
This according to Ologbondiyan was in addition to the government’s inability to fix our refineries and end crude oil theft.
He added that fraud in the management of the country’s oil resources was responsible for the high costs and hardship being suffered by millions of Nigerians who could barely afford their meals and basic necessities of life.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take steps in the fulfillment of his campaign promise to revamp Nigeria refineries while urging him to get more competent hands to run the oil sector.