The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has threatened MTN with contract revocation unless the company pays N15 billion monthly to contractors handling the construction of the Enugu–Onitsha Expressway.
Umahi said this when some lawmakers from the National Assembly came seeking the intervention of the Federal Government concerning the construction of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway
The road is being handled by RCC Ltd and funded by MTN under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
Umahi, in a statement, by his media aide, Uchenna Orji, disclosed that the order is to fast-track the completion of the road.
Orji said the meeting between the minister and the lawmakers resolved that MTN would need three contractors to execute the 79km within the original contract sum of ₦202 billion.
Orji said the delay on the job, which was due to poor funding and poor contract execution, had resulted in over a 100 per cent increase in the project cost, and allowing MTN more than 11 months on the job could further push the contract to increase by over 200 per cent.
He said Umahi expressed deep sympathy over the lives that have been lost in the uncompleted sections of the expressway, especially the recent incident of a tanker explosion on the Ugwu Onyema axis of the road that killed scores of people.
According to Orji, Umahi stated that under President Bola Tinubu, the Southeast has been given pride of place in the political landscape of Nigeria.
“Mr. President inherited 2,064 projects, totalling about N13tn, and today, those projects will be over N20tn, because of the floating of the naira and the removal of the fuel subsidy. It’s nobody’s fault. But by his good heart and commitment to rewriting the story of this country, he will make Nigeria great again,” Umahi said.
“And so, we want the National Assembly members, and of course, Southeast stakeholders, to please stand up and commend the President at all times because this is not a party thing. And I can beat my chest and say that irrespective of party, no other person will have the heart to do what Mr. President is doing for the people of Southeast.”
