Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transportation, has said that the National Assembly’s refusal to allow government access to a $30bn foreign loan facility is responsible for delaying the complete overhaul of the country’s railway network. The minister of transportation made the claim when he appeared before the Senate joint committees on land transport and foreign and local debts, which is investigating the alleged abandonment of the eastern rail lines in the rail revitalisation projects across the country, This Day reports.

Amaechi noted that the federal government has no plan to exclude the southeast region from the rail project, noting that the region was already captured in the 2018 borrowing plans of the federal government. “The president insists on rule of law and the law passed by the National Assembly in terms of public procurement is very tedious and not easy to conclude; it takes a very long time. Similarly the law passed by the National Assembly on the Bureau for Public Procurement is very tedious,” Amaechi said.

The minister noted that limited funds had forced the federal government to adopt a systematic approach in the rail project execution. “We have met with both General Electric, GE and the consortium handling the project for nearly two years now and we are still on it even as the first firm as handed over to TRANSNET, meaning, Transport Network . Let me make it clear, the country does not have the resources to do railway in every village. It is not possible. $2.7 billion is N1 trillion,” Amaechi said. Meanwhile, the confirmation of Olanipekun Olukoyede as secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been suspended by the Senate. A member of the Senate committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes, Isa Misau had earlier accused the committee of preparing a report without the consent of others, Premium Times reports.

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