Minister Passes Vote of No Confidence on East-West Road Construction

Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi has passed a vote of no confidence on the construction work done on the East-West Road in Bayelsa/Rivers states in the Niger Delta region of the country.

The Minister of Works stated this while briefing journalists during an inspection of the dualisation of East-West Road Section II 54km in Rivers states.

The Minister pointed out the poor construction job being done on the road, put a stop to the work and called for a review of the road plan.

He insisted that Nigerians must get a value for the billions of naira spent on the job.

“The gimmicks the contractors are using are excuses for overloading. I am passing A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE on the construction of this road.

“I won’t certify anything on this road, the road has failed and it is not acceptable to us. The road is full of potholes, we have paid over N71b and the road has completely gone down, and the road has been further reviewed from N44b to 144b billion, apart from the beautiful bridge you have built, the road has completely gone down.

“Project manager tell your team to meet me in Abuja on Monday to tell me what has caused the failure on the road, I do not accept it is an overloading truck, our roads are not properly being constructed and I demand that these roads must be properly constructed. It is a fight that Nigerians must win and Mr. President must win this fight for the sake of the Nigerian people to truly enjoy the dividends of a democratic Government” Umahi said.

The Works Minister added that he has discussed with the Edo State Governor building a bye-pass on the section of the road that passes through his state in order to reduce traffic gridlock on the road.

“I have invited all the Directors of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) with their engineers from Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom, they should be able to attend to the small failures and redeem all the places that failed on the road and I will hold a meeting with Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC ) Managing Director this evening to find out how we can collaborate on this road.

“We have to look at our constituency projects to see how our constituency projects can be meaningful and impactful and I will be discussing this with the leadership of the House of Representative and the Senate,” Umahi said.

Dominica Nwabufo