The Federal Government has dismissed the speculation that it was using various rail projects as bait ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, made the comment during the inspection of the ongoing construction corridor of the Kano-Kaduna rail project, in Yako Area Council of Kuri Local Government Area, Kano State.
Amaechi declared that the vigour at which the Federal Government was pushing to connect the country through its radical on-going rail projects should not be misconstrued as a ploy to sway Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“I have told people, don’t politicize railway project; don’t make it look as if there are political motives behind the construction. As a government, we are determined to deliver on projects once the resources are there,” he quipped.
Commenting on the compensation, the minister maintained that all affected lands belonging to individuals or otherwise had been fully settled.
His words: “The first item on the implementation strategy for the 206 km project was provision for complete compensation. We are daring anyone that has not been fully settled to write to the ministry.”
On the reason for the inspection, Amaechi said: “We are here basically to find out whether Messrs. China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), has commenced work and how far they have gone because they have a target of completing this at the end of 2022 or in the first quarter of 2023.”
The former Rivers State governor announced that the initial project design and cost for the Kano-Kaduna rail project to Federal Executive Council was for the construction of a single track but directed it should be double track as is the case with Lagos-Ibadan.
