Minister of Works Mike Onolememen has said the East-West road will be completed by December.
He said the road was 85 per cent completed.
Onolememen, who spoke to reporters at his Benin City home, said 25,000km of roads belonging to the Federal Government were now in good condition.
He said only 4,000km of the nation’s roads were in fair condition as at 2010, according to a study by the Department of International Development in the United Kingdom (UK).
The minister said the East-West road was delayed because of funds and militants’ activities in the Niger Delta.
Onolememen, who debunked insinuations that the Federal Government was playing politics with road development, said many things happened with the East West road that Nigerians were not aware about.
He said: “The Ministry of Works initially awarded that contract in four sections in 2006. In the wisdom of then President Musa Yar Adua, he transferred that road to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. The funding challenge on that road started in 2006.
“When that project was awarded, the mobilisation was not paid until 2008. Many Nigerians will not know this. When the mobilisation was paid, you recalled that the level of militancy was high and that drove Julius Berger out of site. They lost some workers.
“Before the section where the company was doing could be rewarded, it took a long time and it was re-awarded to Sectraco. That is the only section that is outstanding as we speak. Niger Delta is one of the most difficult areas to build a road.”
“What is more important is that it took Mr. President enough time to raise the kind of money needed to drive construction work on the East West road. Starting from October, the road will pick up and not because of electioneering. We have completed 62 roads. We want to create an unbroken chain of dual carriageways across the country.”
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Mr Minister, Enugu-Onitsha has been under renovation for the past five years; longer than the time taken to construct it. Port Harcourt - Enugu raod has remained a death trap for over 10 years. There has never been a time one drives through these roads smoothly from one end to the other. One believes it is better to finish up these jobs and stop telling us stories about what should naturally be the duty of the FGN. Let's see the roads when they are ready. In Enugu, our Governor has never gone on the air or on the papers to say anything but we see work being done since he came into office. Go on and complete the work, people using the roads will see the work and commend it.
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