The Federal Government has stated that the delay in the completion of the East-West Road is due to the on-going construction of the bridges and culverts on that road.
The Minster of the Niger Delta Ministry, Godsdey Orubebe, who disclosed this during a lecture at the University of Benin, said the road was initially awarded in 2006 without proper designs and inadequately funded by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
According to him, though the road was awarded for N200 billion by the Obasanjo administration in 2006, only N1.2 billion was released for it.
Mr. Orubebe who said the challenge of abduction of expatriate workers, has also contributed to delay the project. He, however, gave the assurance that it will be completed by December 2014.
The Minister’s explanation is coming after the governor of River State, Chibuike Amaechi criticised him for not doing any project in the region and demanded the completion of the East-West road which stretches from Edo State to Cross River State.
Supporting the call for a new revenue allocation formula, the minister said it should not be on the basis of which arm of government should get more or less, rather the emphasis should be on the re-allocation of the duties of the three arms of government.
This, he noted, will effectively speed up the development of the country.
