By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
The Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State has slammed the governorship candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) in the last general election, Sobomabo Jackrich, for his recent comments on the Port Harcourt Ring Road Project.
Jackrich had accused the Rivers State government of awarding the project without following due process in line with the public procurement act.
He also called on the national assembly to launch an investigation into the award of the 50.15 km road project, given its huge cost of N195.3 billion which he said amounted to N4 billion per kilometer of road.
But reacting to Jackrich’s statement on Monday, spokesman of the Rivers PDP, Tambari Sydney, described it as baseless, accusing the ex-Niger Delta agitator of lacking adequate information about the ring road project.
The Rivers PDP spokesman said: “I will like to advise our brother, Soboma Jackrich to take advantage of the freedom of information act to cross-check his details and facts before he will come on air next time and not join to deceive the public on a well established project that everybody is aware of.
“He didn’t actually cross-check his facts very well before coming on air because if he actually did, he would have known that since the inception of this project, Rivers State government has always gone through due process in carrying out all their projects even right from the previous administration and the Port Harcourt Ring Road is not an exception.
“So, calling for a probe into the Port Harcourt Ring Road is neither here nor there. It’s baseless. It only shows a man who is not well informed before coming on air to lay criticism to such project. That’s why I’m advising him: he should go to ministry of works, state assembly, he will see the processes that the government went through before awarding this project.”
On the issue of high cost of the ring road project raised by Jackrich, the Rivers PDP mouthpiece, Tambari Sydney, defended the cost, attributing it to the current realities in Nigeria where the prices of goods and services have gone up.
He said: “If it is like using a country like Nigeria where the prices of goods and services is skyrocketing on daily basis, you cannot tell me that the price of cement in January last year is same with the price of cement today.
“We’re talking about the current reality on what will deliver such a project at the time-bound given the required quality and considering the construction company that is involved, I can tell you that the issue, like I said, should be, what would be the benefit of this project? So the amount of money that will be earmarked for this project, I think it’s the best that can deliver this project to Rivers people.”
