Politics

Why work on Buhari’s Lagos-Ibadan rail project is slow – Amaechi

Published

5 years ago

February 2, 2019

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has blamed the rocky terrains in Oyo State for the slowness of work on the Lagos–Ibadan axis of the Federal Government’s rail project.

Speaking on Friday after his routine inspection of the project, he declared a two months of a free train ride from Lagos to Abeokuta after the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has flagged-off the train service along that route.

According to Rotimi Amaechi, “Where we have challenge now is at Ibadan. The contractor said they have to blast through rocks, which might slow down the pace of work there. They have already started doing that.

“However, come 6th of February, 2019, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Oshinbajo will take a train ride from Iju to Abeokuta to flag-off that segment of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project. Except if it clashes with his protocol arrangement, which I am yet to confirm, then he will be here that day.
“After the flag-off by the Vice President, we will run free train rides from Iju to Abeokuta for two months. The project is about 70% completed.”
On the issue of litigations confronting the project, the Minister explained that only from Lagos to Iju are there issues of litigations.

“From Iju to Abeokuta, we don’t have any issue of litigations. It is only from Lagos that such exist, and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) will sort their compensation soon,” he said.