SOUTHEAST GOVERNORS TO MEET BUHARI ON NIGER BRIDGE, ENUGU AIRPORT

SOUTHEAST GOVERNORS TO MEET BUHARI ON NIGER BRIDGE, ENUGU AIRPORT

The Southeast governors Forum have agreed to hold a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday, November 21.

Issues such as the second Niger Bridge, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and the non-representation of the region in Nigeria’s security apparatus are top items in the agenda of the said meeting.

According to the governors, 50% of the contract sum should be released while the remaining 50 per cent should be secured in a bond to ensure that the above-mentioned projects would be completed.

The Director General of the south-east governor’s forum, Professor Simon Ortuanya, revealed this to the journalist in his briefing on Monday.

Ortuanya disclosed that the meeting came as a result of the governors’ initial interaction on the pressing needs of the geopolitical zone which entailed the second Niger bridge.

He said: “We are happy with the Federal Government which has finally awarded the second Niger bridge as we earlier said. The main contract was signed in August 2018 for N206 billion. The commencement for work on the bridge was with effect from September 2018.

“This is the first time the actual work on the second Niger bridge would commence. The Federal Government has released about N7 billion for this work, which for us does not represent up to 10 per cent of the total sum.

“So, we the southeast governors want to use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to increase the money that they have released to the contractor. Fortunately, the contractor is Julius Berger and it’s a reputable company but we are urging the government to release at least 50 per cent of the contract sum so that we can have significant work on the second Nigeria bridge. “We also feel that the contract period of 42 months is too long and we are urging the Federal Government to review the contract period so that they can bring it down to two years. There are several reasons for this.

“We are also asking that the balance of the 50 per cent should be secured by the Federal Government bond.

“Another major item on the agenda is the Akanu Ibiam International airport and we want to ask the federal government to use this opportunity of meeting with our governors and bring back the contractors that have abandoned work because we still know that the tarmac is still bumpy, the building that has damaged has not been repaired and we urged the federal government to please do the needful urgently.

“The contractor that abandoned the tarmac should come back and resume work to ensure that the cargo section of the airport is made functional because we know that the cargo section is still not functional.”