By Laraba MUREY
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has accused the China Civil Engineering and Construction Company, CCECC, of deliberately delaying the delivery of the Kaduna-Kano rail project.
Ameachi lamented on the sluggishness with which the company has carried the project despite mobilizing them partly.
He continued that, he was not unaware of the excuses CCECC will come up with, while reminding the company of its on part in the terms of contract they signed which is to seek for funds.
Ameachi, gave this explanation during the inspection of facilities on the rail corridor on Saturday.
According to him, “I think the CCECC is beginning to play politics. They should move away from politics and focus on construction. And I think they need to complete the Kaduna-Kano rail as planned. I won’t say more than this until we meet with CCECC on Wednesday.
“The speed is extremely slow. They are supposed to have over 2,000 equipment on this project, they have just 541 so far. They claimed that over 300 are in Kaduna. We have sent a team to check. But even if you add that, you will still have just over 800. Just over 800 pieces of equipment compared to 2,000 means something is wrong somewhere”, He said.
He added that, “I know they will claim that we haven’t funded them but part of their responsibility in the contract is for them to look for the money. CCECC hasn’t given us money. Chinese haven’t given us money. So they can’t afford to delay it because it is their responsibility to look for the money. That’s what the CCECC must do. But I will address the press and Nigerians on Wednesday after we meet with CCECC. If there is no difference, I will tell the country what’s going on.
“I think what they’re doing is delaying the project for this government to come to end,”
He said the report from the project consultant shows the project is just about five percent completed, which is unacceptable.”
