President Muhammadu Buhari has once again won high points from the volatile oil region, this time for signing the $11.97 billion coastal rail project that would run from Calabar in Cross River to Lagos, through most of the towns in eastern Nigeria.
This comes after the highpoints of the flag-off of the Ogoni clean up and award of oil field (OML 15) to a community-owned company, Belema Oil Nigeria Limited in the Kula area of Rivers State, where over 520 youths have just been employed.
Transportation minister, Chibuike Amaechi, has also received applause for saving N134.4 billion by renegotiating the coastal rail project.
The state party chairma, Davis Ikanya, in a statement in Port Harcourt, hailed President Buhari over his efforts to restore peace in the Niger Delta and for his determination to actualise the multi-billion-dollar Lagos-Calabar coastal rail-line project.
The party noted that Buhari did not only approve dialogue with Niger Delta militants but also recently met with stakeholders from the region in a bid to deepen his peace initiate.
Ikanya said: “With these laudable steps, President Buhari has demonstrated his sincere and genuine concern and interest for the peace, emancipation and development of the Niger Delta region. Just as he did in the case of the Ogoni clean-up exercise, he has by these two epochal acts once more vindicated our earlier declaration that he is a true son of the Niger Delta region.”
The party also commended Amaechi, for once again saving a whopping sum of N134.4 billion (using N168 to $1 as it was in 2014 when the contract was first signed) for the nation by negotiating downwards the planned 1,402km coastal rail-line project.
He said: “Amaechi has by this singular act demonstrated to the entire world that he utilised the resources of Rivers State prudently and wisely during his tenure as the governor of Rivers State.”
The party commended Buhari for his assurance that funds would not stall or delay the completion of the project, saying, “We therefore urge the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to move to site and commence work as a matter of urgency so that this dream that will improve both transportation and economic activities within this region could be quickly brought to life.”
