Ndubuisi Orji,  Abuja

The House of Representatives,  yesterday,  queried the allocation of N15 billion to the East West Road by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in its 2021 budget. The ministry has N19 billion proposal for capital expenditure in the 2021 fiscal year.

The House Committee on Niger Delta Affairs raised the query when the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs,  Godswill Akpabio, appeared before it for the defence.

The Committee said it will not allow the Niger Delta Ministry spend 80 per cent of its 2021 capital budget on  the East West Road alone.

The lawmakers,  who stated that part of the N15billion could have channeled to youth oriented projects, observed that it is not feasible to commit that sum to one project,  when there are over 300 projects scattered across the Niger Delta region.

Chairman of the Committee,  Essien Ayi, observed  that the “East West Road has been there for over 14 years. We just finished with EndSARS, we know what happened, the whole of my state capital everywhere was turned upside down, the kind of devastation that I saw there, it would have taken us about ten years back.

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“If the budget is youth oriented, then why are we going to use 15 billion for East West road. I listened to the news where the Senate President warned that we should be careful that if this thing resurfaces again it is going to be very devastating. So minister, we have about three hundred and something projects in Niger Delta;  so how are you going to allocate the money to this kind of project, it’s not possible. We will not do it.’’

However,  Akpabio appealed to the lawmakers to allow the the proposal for the East West Road scale through as the road has lingered for too long.The minister,  who disclosed that about N423 billion has spent on the road noted  that the President Muhammadu Buhari is passionate about completing the road before the end of his administration.

“From 2006 up till date, when I was not part of government, I used to think that the road was over priced. But now that I am part of government, I think it was adequately priced. It’s just that the aggregate has gone up in terms of materials.”

For that road, I think it started with Afri nexim to Africa Development Bank, and it tried to go to Sovereign Wealth Fund, but not one Naira was released for that.

“ I believe that working together, we can take 15 billion and spread all over and yet we will finish this administration without completing a single road. So, lets just close our eyes and do something. Even the four billion you’re talking about, we put some in youths empowerment and skill acquisition. But if there is any major project that we think we should do let’s do it, otherwise we will be like NDDC that has about 12 thousand abandoned projects across Niger Delta, yet they have spent trillions,” the minister stated.