The Federal Government has debunked what it called false, misleading, and damaging report published in Daily Trust of 21st January 2025, represented the Federal Ministry of Works as having awarded a section of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road dualization to Infoquest Nigeria Ltd.
Works Minister, Sen (Engr) David Umahi who disclosed this at a press briefing held on 21st January 2025 in Abuja described as mischievous, insensitively misleading and injurious the statement credited to him in the said publication.
The Minister said he was wrongly quoted to have said that Infoquest Nigeria Ltd secured a “No objection” of N252.89 billion from the Bureau of Public Procurement ( BPP) for the rehabilitation of a section Abuja- Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road and where they described the Ministry as having awarded the said contract to an obscure company.
Umahi further made it known that the company that has a contractual relationship with the Ministry on the said project is Infiouest International Limited and that the company is corporately active and absolutely in compliance with all legal requirements and regulations set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act.
He berated the mischief created by the publication as a deliberate orchestration by a cartel to malign the Ministry, undermine the efforts of the Renewed Hope administration in revolutionizing road development and demarket the company that has proven capacity in road construction.
Umahi also alluded to the mischiefs and deliberate misrepresentation of facts contained in the sponsored publications made in several national dailies by Julius Berger Plc recently on the reason why they reneged in their contractual obligations in respect of the section of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road they were handling before it was determined.
He wondered why the coordinated onslaught of falsehood, gangup by adversaries to the policy of government just because of the Ministry’s insistence on a new order of value for money, quality assurance and best practices in project pricing and execution.
In his remarks, the Honourable Minister of State for Works said he was delighted by the proactiveness and resoluteness shown by the Ministry in decapitating the intentions of those who made false publication against the Ministry which according to him was intended to distract the Ministry, undermine its confidence before Nigerians.
He called on the media operators not to allow themselves to be used by the fifth columnists to publish unfounded reports to undermine the Renewed Hope agenda but should always crosscheck their information with the appropriate authority so as to let out only the truth to the public.
Making the vote of thanks, the Permanent Secretary described the press briefing as thoughtful and timely harped on importance of development journalism and urged the media to always uphold the truth in their professional duties of dissemination rather than allow themselves to be used as a tool in the hands of enemies of our national development.