Rotimi Amaechi, the minister for
transportation, says the administration of Goodluck Jonathan paid a contractor
billions for the dredging of River Niger but what President will use to execute it will shock Nigerians.
While speaking at the opening of a conference on Fast-tracking Port Reforms in Lagos on Thursday, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan
after paying a contractor N34 billion for the dredging of the River Niger, failed to get the
job done.
The outspoken minister who spoke at the event hosted by The Nation in conjunction
with the Federal Ministry of Transportation and Epsilon Limited, disclosed that the
President Muhammadu Buhari
administration is spending N100 million to get the job done.
”When the River Niger was first approved for dredging by the previous administration,
it was approved for N47billion and N34billion was paid to the contractor.
Dancers were called in and there was a party.
“We are not dredging the River Niger with billions of naira; we are dredging the River Niger with just N100m. When we flagged it
off recently, did you see us dancing? Was there a party? I just went to see the governor and told him that the project will
start today and will be finished in one month.
“The governor said he will accompany me, and I said ‘ok’. So, I asked the governor to
flag it off since it’s located in his state,” the minister said.
Amaechi said further that: “People are wondering how on earth we are going to dredge the River Niger for N100m when the
previous government awarded same contract for N47billion? But we are going to dredge the River Niger, using dredgers owned by the National Inland Waterways
Authority (NIWA).
“NIWA has dredgers, but the previous government preferred to give contractors money to dredge the river with private dredgers while NIWA’s dredgers were lying
idle somewhere in Port Harcourt.
“The NIWA MD told me the agency has dredgers, but it’s been hired out to somebody in Port Harcourt. So, we had dredgers, but the previous administration
hired them out to some persons in Port Harcourt while paying a contractor billions of naira to use privately owned dredgers at
a very high cost.
“I told the NIWA MD that I will look for money to fuel their dredgers, and work has
started. That is why we are dredging the River Niger with just N100m,” Amaechi said.
In 2011, the Jonathan administration approved the Lower River Niger Dredging
Project from Warri, in Delta State, to Baro, in Niger State, to four contractors — Fung Tai
Eng Company Nigeria Limited, Dredging International Service Nigeria Limited, Van Oord Nigeria Limited and Williams Lloyds
Technology Company Limited.
Last year, the Nigerian Indigenous Ship- Owners Association (NISA) accused NIWA of bungling the dredging contract of the
Lower River Niger.
