Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described as wasteful and a highway to fraud the claim by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, that the 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway will tentatively cost N15.3 trillion.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election,  also lashed out at Umahi for altering the initial plan of the Lagos-Calabar highway project after Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech had been awarded the contract without any competitive bidding.

Umahi had, during TV appearance on Thursday, said the project will cost N15.356 trillion and is expected to be completed in eight years.

He added that the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway would cost N4 billion per kilometre.

Reacting via a statement on Thursday, April 11, Atiku said: “Umahi had announced that the project would be fully funded by Hitech, and based on this, there was no competitive bidding. He (Umahi) then turned around to say that Hitech could only raise just 6 per cent of the money for the pilot phase. This smacks of deceit.”

‘Outright fraud’: Atiku calls for N3.7trn budget padding probe

The former Vice President added that the tentative cost was the equivalent of the total budget of all 36 states of the federation combined.

He said: “The total budget of all 36 states of the federation for 2024 stands at about N14 trillion. If you add that of the FCT, the entire budget of all sub-nationals is N15.91 trillion. This is scandalous. Worse still, they have already awarded the contract but are still not sure of the level of the counterpart funding component of the federal government.

“Umahi had said in September 2023 that Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech had the money to construct the highway and that it would be PPP. Hitech was to build, operate, and transfer it back to the Nigerian government after years of tolling.

“It was reported by every media organisation, including those owned by Tinubu. It was on the basis of this proposal that Hitech was picked. Why did Umahi then turn around to claim that it was not to be a PPP but that the government would pay 15 per cent – 30 per cent?”

Atiku noted that in the 2024 budget, the project was captured as the Lagos-Port Harcourt coastal highway and was put at N500 million.

“Although the National Assembly approved N500m for the project this year, the Tinubu administration has released N1.06 trillion. That is more than 200 times what is in the Appropriation Act. This is what happens when the National Assembly fails in its duties,” he added.

Atiku, who also accused Umahi of attempting to deceive Nigerians on the appropriation for the project, called on members of the National Assembly to be “alive to their responsibilities instead of acting like an annexe of the presidency”.

The Star