FG spends N117bn on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    
The Federal Government on Tuesday said it had so far committed N50bn for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and had budgeted N25bn in the 2014 and 2015 budgets respectively for the road.

It also stated that government institutions were also putting the sum of N17bn for the reconstruction work on the road.

The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, disclosed this in Abuja when a delegation from the Peoples Democratic Party paid him a courtesy call. The delegation was led by Senator Ibrahim Mantu.

Onolememen said, “Government can decide how it funds its road projects and government has made commitments up to the sum of N50bn on that road. In 2014 alone, government budgeted N25bn for that road and that is after mobilising the contractors last year. And in 2015 we will repeat another N25bn on the road. We also have government institutions that are also putting money down up to about N17bn on that road.

“And we have decided as a government and ministry that in order to fast track the completion of that road we are going to be issuing road bonds and infrastructure bonds where we will now raise a balance of N100bn. This is a novel way of funding infrastructure development projects across the world and that is what can guarantee the quick delivery of that road.”

The minister said attempts to discredit the government’s work on the road were done by people who had personal interest as against national or public interest, adding that they had been in the habit of sponsoring spurious reports about the road.

He said, “The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, in 2009, was concessioned to a Nigerian concessionaire and after three years nothing happened on the road and Nigerians were dying daily on that road. In fact it was a nightmare to travel through that road. As a responsible government, we decided to terminate that concession because it had failed completely.”

According to Onolememen, the government was further provoked by the actions of concessionaire as it failed to abide by the terms of the original agreement.

He added, “Concession that was entered into in 2009 and after three years the concessionaire could not even tar a kilometre of road. And there was no reason for any responsible government to tolerate that situation, particularly when the concessionaire decided to abandon the contract agreement and was now brandishing a brand new contract agreement for us to engage in.

“So it wasn’t possible and for us we decided to do the needful; which was to terminate that concession and to take the road back. We decided to construct that road in the interest of Nigerians. In fact, since that road was re-awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited and RCC Nigeria Limited, construction work has commenced on it.”