Current Niger Bridge, Onitsha
Strong realities on ground at the second Niger Bridge have shown that contrary to the claims of the National Assembly that the project has no contractor, recent tour of the construction site by select journalists with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has shown otherwise.
Observations by Business Hilights during the tour showed that about 310 of the 615 piles designed for the Bridge have been sunk, while massive sand-filling of the service roads has been carried out to the height of five metres.
Explaining more, the Federal Controller of Works, Anambra State, Mr. Innocent Alumona, said the lead contractor, Julius Berger had been on site since this year and “so far, phases 1, 2 and 3, which have to do with the foundation had been completed, with the contractor currently on phase 4, expected to be completed in July this year”.
Answering questions from media executives at the end of the tour, the minister decried that “A lot of people are saying no work is going on on the Second Niger Bridge because they have not been opportuned to visit the site. The Federal Government actually is not sleeping. A lot of money has been spent in the process of realizing the Second Niger Bridge and as we go further, we will show you a lot that has been done to prove to some of us – who are still doubting that nothing is happening at the Second Niger Bridge – that a lot is ongoing,”
“I am very excited because the thing about this project is that because of the alignment, people travelling on the old bridge will say nothing is going on because they cannot see it, but you have come here and you can see the amount of work that is going on, so I’m very very excited.”
“I think one thing that this government has assured is that funding won’t be a problem because we have many sources of funding and I think the latest is the Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund (PIDF), which is actually aimed at ensuring that no project like this suffers for lack of funding,” the minister said.
The tour saw the entire entourage inspecting construction work at both the Asaba and Onitsha ends of the bridge.
