Osinbajo: We’ve Paid $2bn For Second Niger Bridge

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has paid the sum of $2 billion for completing the second Niger Bridge in the South East before the end of 2019.

Osinbajo said this on Friday in Onitsha during the flag-off of the governorship campaign of Mr Tony Nwoye of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State.

According to the Vice President, the funds have been made available for the project from the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).

He said the sum had already been paid to the contractors as mobilisation fees for the take-off of the bridge project.

“We are not making promises for nothing. The second Niger Bridge, we have been talking about it for a long time. But for the first time, President Muhammadu Buhari went by himself to negotiate the facility to do that second Niger Bridge,” the Vice President said.

“And that is why the second Niger Bridge is in our current budget and we have provided for it. In fact, I am being reminded that just two days ago, the Sovereign Wealth Fund paid $2billion for that same project. So, we will definitely see our second Niger Bridge. We will not make promises we cannot keep.”

However, some four hours later, the spokesperson to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, issued a statement, in which put the amount released at N2bn.

The Vice President said that Anambra was the first to start the Federal Government School Feeding programme, adding that the programme had successfully spread to many other states.

He called on the people in the state to support the APC candidate, whom he said would use his youthful ability to deliver on the party’s manifesto.

Osinbajo further stated that the previous administrations abandoned the Lagos-Calabar railway project, before it was later revived under the APC-led Federal Government.

“When we were talking of railway, Lagos-Calabar railway, under the old administration, I will not mention them by name.

“They said Lagos-Calabar will go from Lagos to Calabar, there was no connection to the South-East. It was when President Muhammadu Buhari came that we redesigned the Lagos-Calabar in order to pass through Onitsha in the first place.

“By that new design, we also have the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri railway that has a connection to Umuahia-Owerri and Enugu-Awka. So all of those, we will not make promises we cannot keep. Every promise we make, we will keep,” he added.