Umahi to PENGASSAN: Put Nigeria first, shelve strike action

The Minister of Works, Sen. (Engr) David Umahi has called upon the leadership of PENGASSAN to put the nation first and shelve their impending strike action over their disagreement with Dangote Group.

Umahi, in a statement released by his aide recently, urged this group to allow God’s wisdom to prevail in the efforts to resolve the matter, noting that the strike action would have a negative impact on the rebounding economy.

The Minister, accompanied by Spokesman of 2019 Atiku Presidential campaign organization, Segun Sowunmi, the Surveyor -General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adebomehin, paid inspection visits to sections I & II of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in Lagos State, South West.
He stated that the essence of his inspection visit to the Coastal Highway with important personalities across party lines was to give them the latitude to evaluate the quality and progress of work.

Also, to appreciate what the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing in the works sector, so as to tell the story whether the projects are great investments for the future of Nigeria or the projects are not profitable.

The Minister’s visit was to also reverify the evaluation of the additional work of the contractor handling the project, Hitech Construction Company Ltd as compiled by the Department of Roads and Bridges of the Federal Ministry of Works.
He commended very highly the pace and quality of work by the contractor while attributed the success of the project and the solution proffered to some technical problems encountered in some sections of the project to excellence in performance.

The noted that the contractor is set to build Nigeria’s biggest flyovers at the connecting point between sections I & II of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway to resolve traffic conflicts along the highway.

He urged members of the public not to listen to the antics and sensations of some content creators who, for lack of knowledge or deliberate mischief, had reported that shoulders of the Coastal Highway project not yet protected amounted to construction failure.
On the false claims and unabated falsehold leveled against the federal govt by one Stella Okengwu who purports to be Winhome CEO, Umahi challenged her to show evidence of investment on the land she claimed to have purchased in 2022 at the total cost of N50m and to show any proof of approval to develop such land let alone investing US$250m.

He noted that the Lagos State govt had revoked the land to give the right way to the federal government, challenging the said diaspora investor to disclose where the said money was invested on if not a rickety gate that was erected on the land for which the federal govt had offered her a monetary compensation.

The Minister urged the self acclaimed investor to without further delay declare the US $250m he claimed to have collected from the diaspora investors or submit herself to investigation by Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies.
“The Civil Societies group who had participated in a protest against the federal government on behalf of the said CEO of Winhome also spoke to condemn and denounce the false claims of the woman”, the Minister added.

In his comment after the project inspection, the spokesperson to Atiku presidential campaign organization described the work done by Hitech as a masterpiece and praised the vision of Mr. President in building the Renewed Hope legacy road projects.

He described the project as a desirable roadmap to transformation of Nigeria’s economic landscape while charged Nigerians to look beyond politics and support any government programme that would guarantee the future of the citizenry.
Sowunmi said that Mr. President is building consensus around national development, and that as opposition, he was ready to converse on behalf of Nigerians.

He noted that a takeaway conversation is that a nation at 65 must be in a hurry to get deserving infrastructural linkages like other advanced nations of the world.

Others who spoke on the method statements of the project being inspected included: the Managing Director of Hitech Construction Ltd, Mr. Dany Abboud, the Director Highway Bridge and Design and the Federal Controller of Works.