FG has 69 ongoing projects in South East, says minister

Sixty-Nine infrastructure projects of the Federal Government are ongoing in the South East geo-political zone, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said.He said this yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State, at a public lecture and inauguration of wards and local government canvassers for the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Director of Media, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo, delivered the lecture at the event.Mohammed debunked allegation of neglect of the South East through Director General of the South East Governors Forum, Prof. Simon Atuanya during the presentation of a report on monitoring the performance of the 2017 federal capital budget in the region.

The minister described the statement credited to South East governors, that the region had been shortchanged in terms of projects, as untrue, asserting that no region was left out of the massive infrastructural projects of President Buhari’s administration.He said the claim was totally untrue, as the governors might have been misquoted.

The minister, who promised to publish the 69 projects and their sites, explained that the South East got N16.6 billion worth of projects from the N100 billion Sukuk Bond, just alike every other zone.Mohammed listed the four projects covered by the Sukuk Bond proceeds in the South East as the outstanding section of the Onitsha/Enugu expressway and the Enugu/Port Harcourt dual carriageway sections I, II and III.

He said he had gone to inspect some of the roads, as well as the Aba/Port Harcourt section of the Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway and the second Niger Bridge, whose first three phases had reportedly been completed.“In conclusion, the South East has never had it so good in the area of infrastructure. Had the previous administrations done even half of what we are doing now in that region, no one will be complaining today. It is alright to ask for more; but it is unfair to say nothing has been done,” he said.