The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday said the N33bn proposal by a contracting firm for underwater inspection of a section of the Third Mainland Bridge is fraudulent.<\/p>\n
The party therefore commended the Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen for turning down the proposal following his discovery that the actual job will require only N5 billion.<\/p>\n
The Senate had mandated the Minister to undertake repairs on the bridge following a motion by Senator Gbenga Ashafa, who raised the alarm on the poor state of the bridge.<\/p>\n
The minister however insisted that the bridge is safe.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the Minister, who appeared before the Senate on Monday told lawmakers that he rejected the proposal when he used his engineering experience to discover that the firm, which only reached for solutions and recommendations without technical inspection, inflated the cost of project inspection to N33 billion when the entire job will cost only N5 billion.<\/p>\n
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh said the rejection of the proposal by the minister is “yet another testament to the anti-corruption stance of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration”.<\/p>\n
The party noted that the minister has saved the nation a huge sum of money which would have been carted away by what it called “unscrupulous contractors but for his patriotic stance and application of his engineering experience for public good.”<\/p>\n
The statement read \u201cThe leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) commends the Minister of Works, Arc Mike Onolememen for his display of patriotism in turning down the N33 billion proposal by a contracting firm for underwater inspection of a section of the Third Mainland Bridge after his direct discovery that the actual job will cost only N5 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a rare display of patriotism and another testament to the anti-corruption stance of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration.
\nThe minister in applying his engineering experience which enabled him to discover that the entire job will cost only N5 billion shows his patriotism and justifies the confidence reposed on him by President Goodluck Jonathan,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The PDP said it was proud of the minister, charged him to remain steadfast and continue to resist temptations from “fraudulent persons and companies.”<\/p>\n
The leadership of the party also called on other government functionaries to emulate the Minister of Works and ensure that due process is always followed in all activities of government in line with the anti-corruption stance of the party.<\/p>\n
It also charged “contracting firms in the country to desist from such fraudulent tendencies especially the practice of inflating contract costs to defraud the nation”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday said the N33bn proposal by a contracting firm for underwater inspection of a section of the Third Mainland Bridge is fraudulent. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n