Rail projects: Senators, Ohanaeze not happy with the exclusion of the south-east

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Rail projects: Senators, Ohanaeze not happy with the exclusion of the south-east

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The $5.851 billion China Exim Bank loan request submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate may be stalled, as senators from the South East protest alleged exclusion of their geopolitical zone from the rail modernisation project nationwide.Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) said the exclusion was inexplicable. He explained this in a motion titled, “Outright Omission of Eastern Corridor Rail Line in the request for approval of Federal Government 2016-2015 External Borrowing (Rolling Plan).”Ohanaeze Ndigbo sees the exclusion of the zone as an injustice which was not healthy for the Nigerian ones we preach.Chief John Nwodo, president of the group, in a statement said there was no justification in excluding the region from the plan. But, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun at her appearance before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, headed by Senator Shehu Sani defended the loan request: “the $5.815 billion loan was a comprehensive railway project for the entire nation.”Adeosun added that any loan request from China is tied to a condition that the Chinese firm would execute only contracts involving the loan request, adding that the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri rail projects would be captured in the next request.However, Chairman of the committee, Senator Shehu Sani sees it as worrisome that a Chinese firm approved a loan for Nigeria and the same Chinese firm would execute the project.Senate President, Bukola Saraki, assured the protesting lawmakers that the leadership of the Senate, had already taken a position of the non-inclusion of some parts of the country in the proposed modernisation.He said the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts was already working on the loan request. Senator Gbenga Ashafa (APC, Lagos East) who heads the Senate Committee on Land Transport, urged them to pass the loan request.“The Calabar to Lagos coastal rail would pass through Obudu Cattle Ranch-Calabar-Uyo-Aba-PH-Yenagoa-Otuoke-Yenagoa-Ughelli-Sapele-Benin-Agbor-Asaba-Onitsha-Benin-Ijebu Ode- Ore-Sagamu-Lagos Seaports; and the Lagos-Kano: Lagos-Ibadan-Ilorin-Minna-Kaduna-Kano.“Hence it can be seen that the project touches at least two major states in the South East being Anambra (Onitsha) and Abia State (Aba),”Saraki said.

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