Babatunde Fashola who is the Minister of Works and Housing has disclosed that President Buhari will not be refunding State Governors for repairing Federal roads. He said the President has specifically told State Governors not to fix federal roads if they will still demand a refund for compensation.
The Minister made the disclosure when he made an appearance before the Federal House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Abandoned Federal Government Road Projects from 1999 till date, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Fashola said the President was forced to issue the directive due to the exorbitant amounts being claimed by Governors as Cost for repairing Federal roads in their states.
“The states submitted a bill of almost a trillion naira when President Buhari was elected. He asked us to work out what was their entitlement and all of that. said Fashola
“Ultimately, the BPP (the Bureau of Public Procurement) certified about N44bn – I don’t remember the exact amount now, except for two states; I think Cross River and there’s another state. They didn’t have the documents at the time, which we have sent back to the President.”
“But the decision to pay those inherited debts, including the ones I contracted as Governor of Lagos, was with the caveat that I should tell the governors to leave his (Buhari’s) roads alone. Those were the directives; I was not the one that took the decision.”
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He (President Buhari) said, “Tell them not to fix my roads again if they’re going to claim compensation. If you want to fix it and not ask for compensation, send me what you want to do.
“But if you want compensation, go and mind your business while I mind my business because I have inherited enough debts”
Fashola also told the Francis Uduyok-led panel that the Ministry was handling 472 Projects at the same time, thereby over-stretching itself while noting that the never-ending demands by Lawmakers were partly responsible.
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The Minister of Works said the constant budget cut was responsible for the abandoned projects