As the controversy over\u00a0 the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar railway project continues, the Federal Government has insisted that the Transportation minister,\u00a0 Rotimi Amaechi did no wrong because the\u00a0 project was duly submitted and accepted by the lawmakers for approval.<\/p>\n
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According to the National Planning ministry, the amended Ministry of Transportation budget was accepted by the relevant committees and that was the version defended by the Minister of Transportation and his team.<\/p>\n
In a statement by the spokesman for the National Planning minister,\u00a0 Akpandem James\u201cIt must be emphasized that the two rail projects are part of those for which the President is currently negotiating funding with the Chinese government.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe N60bn provided in the budget for the Lagos-Kano and Calabar-Lagos rail lines, respectively, is counterpart funding to support the Chinese financing for the projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese projects are part of the Strategic Implementation Plan of the government which was disclosed by the Minister of Budget and National Planning at the National Economic Council Retreat in March 2016, in the presence of state governors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were also mentioned by the Vice President last week in Lagos at The Nation Newspaper\u2019s First National Economic Forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hoped that with this clarification, the raging controversy over the Calabar-Lagos rail project will be put to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it seems the Senate is not buying it. It has said\u00a0 that in spite of protest by the executive over alleged non-inclusion of the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar coastal rail project in the 2016 budget, it would not revisit the budget.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Red Chamber asked President Muhammadu Buhari to prepare a detailed supplementary budget capturing the project and submit before it for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the controversy over\u00a0 the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar railway project continues, the Federal Government has insisted that the Transportation minister,\u00a0 Rotimi Amaechi did no wrong because the\u00a0 project was duly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n