The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Thursday accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of wasting N34 billion on the dredging of the River Niger.
According to The Nation Newspaper, Mr. Amaechi disclosed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is spending N100 million on the job, adding that after paying a contractor N34 billion for the dredging exercise, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration failed to get the job done.
The minister said this at a conference on Fast-tracking Port Reforms, hosted by The Nation newspaper in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Transportation, in Lagos.
”When the River Niger was first approved for dredging by the previous administration,” Mr. Amaechi said, “it was approved for N47 billion and N34 billion was paid to the contractor. Dancers were called in and there was a party.
“We are not dredging the River Niger with billions of naira; we are dredging the River Niger with just N100 million. When we flagged it off recently, did you see us dancing? Was there a party? I just went to see the governor and told him that the project will start today and will be finished in one month.
“The governor said he will accompany me, and I said ‘ok’. So, I asked the governor to flag it off since it’s located in his state.”
Commenting on concerns raised in certain quarters on how the government plans to execute the dredging exercise with N100 million as against the N47 billion earmarked for same by Mr. Jonathan’s government, the former Rivers State governor said the government would not employ the services of private dredgers.
“People are wondering how on earth we are going to dredge the River Niger for N100m when the previous government awarded same contract for N47billion?,” he said.
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