The proposed Lagos Calabar rail project and the absence of provision of funding for the project has raised eyebrows.
The legislative and executive arms of government have traded blame after initial reports that the Legislature was responsible for canceling the project.
However the House Committee on appropriation, Honorable Jibrin stated this morning that there was no provision for the Rail project in the 2016 Appropriation bill.
However, a Senator representing Lagos state, Senator Gbenga Ashafa has made contradictory claims in a press statement he released today.
An excerpt of the statement states, “I confirm that the Lagos to Calabar rail line was not in the original document that was presented to the National Assembly by the Executive. However subsequently at the budget defense session before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, the Hon. Minister for Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project and indeed sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee which contained the said project.”
Ashafa goes on to assert that, “The Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project was therefore included in the Senate Committee on Land Transports recommendation to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.”