PDP Kicks As APC Constructs Kilometre Of Road With N2.12 Billion

<p><em>PDP Kicks over outrageous road construction sum<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> reports that the Peoples Democratic Party&comma; PDP&comma; is demanding an immediate review of the 375 kilometre Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road reconstruction contract&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The demand is contained in a statement signed by the pary’s spokesman&comma; Kola Ologbodiyan and made available to OpenLife Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In the statement&comma; the opposition party is shocked at the alleged inflated sum earmarked for the construction of the 375 kilometre road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In what the party called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the unearthing of corrupt padding in the N797&period;23 billion contract recently approved by the Federal Executive Council&comma; FEC&comma;” it called for an open probe into the alleged padding of the contract &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;from the original N155 billion to an outrageous and indefensible N797 billion&comma; with a whopping N642 billion&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;PDP further stated that the N642 billion differential is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Apparently earmarked to be shared among APC corrupt officials&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Further&comma; the spokesman noted that&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;with the approved N797 billion&comma; for a 375 kilometre road&comma; the Buhari Presidency is claiming to be reconstructing a kilometre of road with an outrageous and inexcusable N2&period;12 billion&semi; a huge slap on the sensibilities of Nigerians&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While our party restates our total support for the reconstruction of this very important road&comma; the PDP insists that it will be against the interest of the nation to allow criminal elements in the Buhari administration to hide under the project to steal a staggering N642 billion which ought to be channeled to other projects that would benefit the people&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our nation is jolted by the level of corruption in the Buhari presidency wherein Mr&period; President could approve a fraudulent contract padding to the tune of N642 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com">billion<&sol;a> at the time our nation is battling with serious economic challenges and infrastructural stagnation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The President Buhari should heed to the demands by Nigeria and immediately effect the review in the interest of the nation&comma; before any releases are made&comma;” PDP demanded&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;It would be recalled that on Tuesday&comma; March 4&comma; the Federal Executive Council &lpar;FEC&rpar; approved over N809&period;7 billion for various projects&comma; including the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kano expressway&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting&comma; the Minister of Works and Housing&comma; Babatunde Fashola&comma; said Council approved the change of scope for the construction of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said the road&comma; hitherto undergoing renovation&comma; would now be completely reconstructed&comma; thus changing the existing cost of the project from N155 billion to N797&period;2 billion&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I presented on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Housing&comma; one memorandum and one report&period; The memo was with respect to the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano<&sol;a> highway&comma; which was to change the scope of works form rehabilitation previously awarded because many parts of the pavement had deteriorated&comma; to full reconstruction of two lanes on both sides&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The council considered and approve the request for that change of scope and the incidental cost consequence&semi; changing the existing contract for N155 billion to N797&period;236 billion to provide for full reconstruction of the main carriageway&comma; trailer parks&comma; way bridges&comma; toll stations and additional side lanes in the built-up areas across the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;premiumtimesng&period;com&sol;">FCT&comma;<&sol;a> Niger Kaduna and Kano Sates&comma; which are all served by the road and this was approved by council for the same contractor&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing&comma; the road reconstruction supervising Ministry has a total N404&period;64billion in the N13&period;3 trillion fiscal estimates for 2021&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;