Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola says the Federal Government has yet to begin disbursing the N78.9 billion owed Rivers State.
The sum was refund for the Nyesom Wike administration’s expenditure on Federal road projects in the state which President Muhammadu Buhari approved in June 2020.
Fashola said that the National Assembly would still need to ratify the refund before it can be disbursed.
The minister spoke Saturday in the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt during the commissioning of the Rebisi flyover.
“Let me make an important observation here. In the first tranche, the refunds were in the order of N577bn. I don’t know the exact number but it was done across party line in the states.
“In this second trance, it was five states, out of those five states, APC states had a total of N148bn and of course Nyesom Wike of Rivers state got the lion share, N78bn, but don’t leave here thinking that he (Wike) has received N78bn. Not yet; he still has to go to the National Assembly,” the minister told journalists.
Wike expressed satisfaction with the completion of the project, describing it as a fulfilment of his electoral promise.
He further assured Rivers people that he would continue to construct more flyovers to ease traffic across the state.
“It is on record that it has never happened where a state government can carry out four flyovers at the same time and we are not working with contractors of low repute. I am so happy today that I made a promise to my people and I have fulfilled that promise,” Wike stated.