Minister faults calls for revocation of road concession contract

CITING ignorance, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen has faulted the call by the Lagos State Government for the revocation of the concession agreement on the rehabilitation of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.Onolememen stated this at Benin Airport at the weekend when he spoke to journalists after a reception organised in his honour by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).The minister said Lagos State shared only one per cent stretch of the road while Ogun and Oyo states share the remaining 80 per cent and therefore lacked the moral power to agitate for the revocation of the concession agreement with the private sector.He added that the Federal Government would be guided by the existing agreement on the road contract, noting that it would amount to discouraging private investors if the contract was revoked.'The Lagos State Government has no right to tell the Federal Government to revoke a contract that is guided by various articles in an agreement and we must limit ourselves to what is available to us because we cannot unilaterally revoke a contract that is properly entered into by the Federal Government. If we do, we will be sending wrong signals to the would-be private investors and that will not be good for the country.'Onolememen also restated the Federal Government's commitment to ensure that federal roads were in good condition during the Christmas period. 'We are flagging off a special programme tagged 'Operation patch all pot holes'.We must ensure we do that while working with Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) so that Nigerians can have pleasurable drive.'He disclosed that the deplorable state of Benin-Ore-Lagos road was receiving urgent attention. 'We have deployed additional team to re-enforce and complement what the contractor, Renold Construction Company (RCC) is doing.'The minister who lamented the non-involvement of financial institutions in long term project, however said that the present administration was keen at encouraging private sector, including financial institutions' participation within and outside the country.
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