The Honourable Minister, Federal Ministry of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, clarified on Friday a report that said that the Federal Government (FG) has stopped funding the construction of federal roads in the south-east.
Umahi clarified the report while addressing pressmen during the inspection of the ongoing rehabilitation of the Uturu-Isuikwuto-Akara Road in Abia State.
“Let me clarify a very mischievous story that the Vanguard carried that the Federal Government (FG) has stopped the funding of federal roads in the South-East,” Umahi told reporters.
“I was expecting the director of media for the Highway South-East to react to that, but I can tell you that there is no iota of truth in that information.
“What we have done is to ask for a review of all the six geo-political zones of the country where we have bad jobs going on,” he said.
The former governor of Ebonyi State also gave a directive that roads all across Nigeria must be totally done on concrete.
“We intend to re-design the road on concrete and see how we can use the available funds to achieve the major carriage way,” Umahi told reporters.
The minister, however, expressed surprise that only four bridges and three kilometres in the south-east were costing N15 billion.
“In the entire south-east, it is only an additional job where there were four bridges, an extra three kilometres that we directed, that the cost was very high,” Umahi said.
“I have directed directors in the ministry to sit with the contractors and review it.”
Umahi also stopped additional work on some road projects in the region until a review of the contracts was carried out.
The minister explained that the cost of additional projects was exceeding the amount budgeted for them.
“I strongly believe that there is no way that the project will cost us more than N3 to N4 billion, so it is not that we are stopping the work, we are actually stopping the additional work,” he explained.
