FG Completes 260 Road Projects In Two Years, Says Umahi

The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, on Friday said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has completed a total of 260 palliative road projects in the last two years.

Umahi, who spoke in Abuja at the Ministerial Press Briefing, said the palliative road projects gulped the sum of N208bn.

To this end, he said 29 major infrastructure projects, totalling over N2trn, are being undertaken, saying that the projects demonstrated the President’s unparalleled dedication to revitalising the country’s national infrastructure.

He said, “In just two years, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has completed 260 palliative road projects nationwide, costing N208bn.

“Beyond this, 29 major infrastructure projects, totalling over N2tn, have been undertaken, demonstrating an unparalleled dedication to revitalising our national infrastructure.”

Umahi also announced that the president had directed that local contractors and developers be developed to grow the economy.

Under the new arrangement, the minister said five engineers who are not at work would be posted to the legacy project sites to learn.

He said, “And let me also announce that Mr. President directed that we must grow the local contractors. We must grow our local engineers.

“And so, we have a programme which we called ‘The New Tool Programme’, whereby in every state we are getting five civil engineers who are not at work and we are posting them to these four legacy projects and other legacy projects of the country so that they can learn.

“We can’t continue to use foreign contractors to grow our economy. You go to China, you find out who is working. We have to grow our people’’.

On the London Show saga, Umahi urged Nigerians to discard the media report, saying that he did not discuss travelling to London with anyone.

While calling the report social media jargon, the minister said he has not been to London in the past two years.

“Before I round off, let me say that I saw when people posted that we are going to London. I’ve never been to London in the past two years. I never discussed with anybody about going to London.

“I have too much work to do here, talk about going to London. And so, we shouldn’t just take on social media and take it to be true. Nobody discussed going to London with me. And let me say that for a minister to travel out of the country, the rule is that you must get written approval from the President.

“So, this is social media jargon and should not be taken seriously. Nobody discussed with me. I’m not aware.

“I’m not aware that any of the other ministers, you know, are aware. And so, please disregard it and let us not join issues with social media.

“Because they would have sent a text to us before they began to condemn us, even as governor, before I travelled out of the country, I had always taken permission from the sitting president’’, Umahi said.

FG Completes 260 Road Projects In Two Years, Says Umahi is first published on The Whistler Newspaper