Chidi Samuel || Worried by the blatant exclusion of the South Eastern corridor from the federal government rail line project that will tranverse the lenght and width of the Country, the Senate Tuesday resolved to summon Transport Minister, Rotimi Chibike Amaechi to explain the rationale behind the move.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in April written to the National Assembly seeking for approval to raise money for the rail project from the China Exxim bank for various rail projects across the Country.
The projects to be covered include the modernization of Lagos-Kano modernisation projects, Lagos-Ibadan segment $1.231 billion; Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project, Kano-Kaduna segment $1.146 billion; and coastal railway project, the Lagos-Calabar segment, N3.474 billion.
But while the request is still pending in the National Assembly, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe,representing Abia East in the Senate called on his fellow senators to suspend temporarily the consideration and approval of the request pendlng the resolution of the circumstances sorrounding the exclusion of the Igbo heartland from the project.
“The Eastern section of the rail segment which has link between South-Eastern and North-Eastern segment if the rail line is completely left out,” Mr. Abaribe said.
“The loan being a federal government would be paid by all sections of the country; therefore, every section of the country should be taken into consideration.
“For the railway project to have meaningful impact on the development of the country it should cover all parts of the country.
“Exclusion of the Eastern section which links four zones of South-South, South-East, and North -Central and the North-East, and the key cities such as Port Harcourt, Enugu, Aba, Markurdi, Lafia, Gudi, Bauchi and Maiduguri is inexplicable,” submitted Mr. Abaribe.
Responding to Abaribe’s concern, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the that Senate leadership had been making efforts to address the matter.
The Senate subsequently uphold the prayer that Mr. Amaechi “appear and explain” reason for the exclusion of the Eastern rail corridor but deleted the prayer that the consideration of the loan request be suspended pending ”correction”.
