Certain Governors of South-Eastern states met with President Goodluck Jonathan late into Wednesday night in
Abuja on issues of infrastructure in the region.
sharpedgenews.com gathered that Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra state while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting which lasted till about 11 p.m., said they discussed the construction of the second Niger Bridge and roads in the region.
He said: “We actually came to see the President to brief him on the situation of the South East and mention one or two issues that are of concern to us and we had a very useful meeting.
“Some of the issues are personal to us but the issue that is of main concern to us is the issue of the second Niger bridge, which the Minister of Works has been working on and has promised to deliver.’’
Obi said the President and the governors also discussed the issue of roads, especially the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Road and the Enugu-Onitsha Road.
The Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen, said the meeting afforded him the opportunity to brief the governors on the procurement of the second Niger Bridge.
“You will recall that in December last year, we commenced the procurement process for the second Niger Bridge and we have achieved a milestone on that particular procurement.
“The transaction adviser was appointed a couple of months ago and a couple of months after, the adviser submitted an inspection report on the project.
“About a week ago, the request for proposal was issued to the short-listed consortia who are participating in the procurement process and that is expected to be turned in by the second week of December.
“After the analysis of the Record for Proposal by the various will-be concessionaire, a successful concessionaire will be announced and that will be followed quickly by the financial closure.
“We are certain that based on our projection, there will be a breakthrough on the second Niger project by the end of the first quarter of 2013, which means that the successful concessionaire for the project will be on site.’’
Onolememen said that the project would be executed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
He added that under the arrangement, the Federal Government would take up 30 per cent equity in the stake, while the successful concessionaire would be required to provide the balance of 70 per cent as counterpart funding.
In attendance at the meeting were Govs. Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia and Rochas Okorocha of Imo.
Also in attendance were Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, other leaders from the South East zone, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and some presidential aides.