Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party candidate for the 2023 Lagos Gubernatorial election, criticized what he described as a reckless and thoughtless decision that led to the destruction of several multimillion-dollar investments and left many jobless.
In a post on his X Handle, Rhodes-Vivour’s remarks came in response to a statement made by @atiku, who raised three critical issues for consideration.
One of the issues raised by @atiku questions the decision of David Umahi, conveyed through a memo to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last month.
Umahi sought approval for the payment of N1.06 trillion to Chagoury’s firm for the first phase of a project.
In his words: “While i challenged the reckless and thoughtless decision to destroy several multimillion dollar investments and render many jobless,
“Atiku abubakar has raised three other critical issues that are worth pondering over.
“1. Why did David Umahi, via a memo to FEC last month, seek the approval of N1.06 trillion to be paid to Chagoury’s firm for the first phase of the project, when it had earlier been stated by the same minister that the project would be funded by a Public Private partnership.
“To even quote the minister, he said “They (Hi-tech) have already found the money, and that is the good news because we don’t waste our time talking and holding meetings and wasting resources.”
“2. Why should the government be committing trillions of taxpayers’ monies into the hands of a company that did not scale through a competitive bidding process? Even worse is that the funds have no approval from the National Assembly.
“3. The opacity and lack of transparency on the actual cost of the project – an art that the president and his cronies mastered over 24 years in Lagos. Without dwelling on the fact that Hitech was unable to complete the 50km Lekki-Epe Expressway despite installing two tollgates along the axis, forcing the Lagos State Government to buy it back at the cost of N7.5 billion ($50 million at the time) in 2013, let us ask ourselves.
“Why this party has no regard for Nigerians. They normalize Impunity and are arguably the biggest vector of misinformation.
“Nigeria is bigger than the lust and insatiable cravings of one man. Let your voices be heard collectively so that we can put an end to their culture of impunity and political oligarchy,” Rhodes-Vivour concluded.
