Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku has escalated his war of words with the President Bola Tinubu administration over the construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
Atiku who was the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the 2023 president election said in a statement on Thursday, that the project is an attempt to defraud Nigerians by the Tinubu administration.
He was reacting to a statement by Minster of Works, Dave Umahi who had dismissed Atiku’s earlier submission that 700km project contract was not properly awarded and the N8b cost of construction per kilometer was dishonestly high.
But Umahi stated the cost per kilometer was N4b prompting a response from Atiku.
“The project is wasteful and a highway to fraud the claim by Works Minister, Dave Umahi, that the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will tentatively cost N15.6 trillion,” said Atiku’s statement.
“Umahi had announced that the project would be fully funded by Hitech, and based on this, there was no competitive bidding. He (Umahi) then turned around to say that Hitech could only raise just 6% of the money for the pilot phase. This smacks of deceit.
“The total budget of all 36 states of the federation for 2024 stands at about N14 trillion. If you add that of the FCT, the entire budget of all sub-nationals is N15.91 trillion. This is scandalous. “Worse still, they have already awarded the contract but are still not sure of the level of the counterpart funding component of the Federal Government.”
“Although the National Assembly approved N500m for the project this year, the Tinubu administration has released N1.06tn. That is more than 200 times what is in the Appropriation Act. This is what happens when the National Assembly fails in its duties.
“It was curious that the N15.91 trillion announced by Umahi did not include the cost of the railway component. He therefore wondered how much the project would cost if the railway component was included.
“If N15.6 trillion is for the road component alone, then the total cost could be far higher when the railway is included. We want to know the cost of the railway.
Speaking on the award of the contract to Hitech, Atiku added: “The essence of competitive bidding is so that Nigerians can get the best value for money.
“It is so that you can compare prices and pick the company that can afford the project. It is wrong for him to have concluded that only Hitech could handle this project when such a project has been done by other reputable firms in the United States, China, and South Africa.
