Atiku’s Camp Fires Fresh Shot At Umahi Over Cost Of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway

Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the Minister of Works, David Umahi, for failing to immediately disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.

Naija News recalls that Atiku had questioned the Tinubu administration’s decision to award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without competitive bidding, daring the President to disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.

The former vice president said the Tinubu administration could not continue to conceal the amount of public funds being spent on the project at a time when Nigeria was still facing dire economic challenges.

But in a statement signed by his spokesman, Orji Uchenna, on Tuesday in Abuja, Umahi said the total cost and breakdown of the project will be made available to the public on Friday.

He described the analysis of the coastal road project figures and the economic importance of the all-important coastal highway project as a gross misrepresentation of facts and figures.

Part of the statement reads, “He (Atiku Abubakar) doesn’t understand figures. I am going to run figures for him to understand, and he will understand how prudent the administration of President Tinubu has been. I will do that in a press conference on my visit to Lagos from April 10, 2024 to April 12, 2024.”

In response, Shaibu, in a post via X on Wednesday, tackled the minister and questioned why he had to wait till Friday to disclose the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project.

He wrote, “Why on earth does David Umahi need these number of days to cough up the price tag for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project? Oh, right, just to make sure those figures are nicely seasoned with ‘shaki’, ‘ponmo’ and other ‘orishirishi’ before serving them up.

“I mean, seriously, a minute should suffice to fish out the cost from that so-called ‘PPP’ pact with Hitech. But hey, who’s counting, right? Certainly not Umahi!”