Abandoned 2nd Niger Bridge will hurt S/East - Peter Obi

Former Governor Peter Obi yesterday literally wept over the contin­ued abandoning of the 2nd Niger Bridge, saying he is personally saddened by the news of its abandonment by the Federal Government.

Obi who described the action as very catastrophic for the nation assuming any­thing happens to the existing Bridge, lamented the contin­ued delay in executing the contract, insisting that the Bridge will assist economic and social activities in not only South-East and South-South but in Nigeria at large.

“Very sad to hear that and …abandoning the 2nd Ni­ger Bridge is a catastrophe because the entire re-gion would be cut off should any­thing happen to the existing bridge across the Niger. We are fin-ished….”

Obi who has empowered over 400 youths at the tune of N100,000 each out of which 40 is doing very well as Mil­lionaires spoke to The AU­THORITY at an event where he gave empowerment to 10 youths.

His administration at­tracted the award of the con­tract of the Bridge during President Goodluck Jona-than’s regime at the tune of N140 billion before current administration of Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari stopped work on the Bridge.

On banning of pedestrians from crossing the existing Bridge, the Anglican Bishop on the Niger, Rt Rev Owen Nwokolo wondered why the Niger Bridge, one of the best designed in the world as it has sec-tions for motorists and pedestrians be an issue, but blamed it on insecurity.

Bishop Nwokolo said it is not ideal to bar pedestri­ans from using the existing Bridge but insisted that be­cause a lot have gone wrong in the country, a lot of things happen which ordinarily should not.

He blamed ill-equipped security personnel as part of the problem as according to him, if the security person­nel are well equipped, they would not be embarrassing individuals in the name of security measures as the Hi-tech equipment would detect weapon carrying persons be­fore the Bridge.

Source: The Authority