In a recent interview with Arise TV from 3:26, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, responded sharply to comments made during a previous broadcast, specifically targeting presenter Rufai Oseni’s questioning of project costs.
The minister expressed his displeasure with the handling of a segment featuring PDP chieftain Segun Sowunmi, stating, “I want to talk briefly on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway because I listened to the PDP chieftain that came on this program yesterday about this time, Segun Sowunmi, and I was very displeased with a number of damaging information that Rufai dished out to the public.”
Umahi defended his presentation of the project’s financial details, saying, “Rufai was very wrong when he said that I was struggling to give figures on Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway costs. That is very disrespectful because this is my profession and I was in your studio, and I ran the figures from the basis, takeoff sheets and arrived at the cost.”
The minister explained that the presenter’s request for uniform per-kilometer costs was technically unreasonable. “Now what Rufai is asking me to do is to give him cost per kilometer from section one at Ahmadu Bello Way in Lagos down to Cross River, Calabar. And that is very unfortunate because he wants to learn engineering from the back door,” Umahi stated.
He elaborated on the complexity of infrastructure costing, noting, “There are no two sections or even within a road project, even where there are no challenges, that you can get a cost of 1 kilometer the same as the cost of the other kilometer.”
Concluding his response, Umahi accused the presenter of being deliberately provocative, stating, “And so what Rufai was saying was very inciting and I think he’s very good at doing this and he should desist from that because it’s actionable.”
The exchange highlights ongoing scrutiny of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project and tensions between government officials and media personalities over public accountability. See, More, Here>>>
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