Ohaneze Demands Supplementary Budget to Cover 2nd Niger Bridge

Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo speaking part of Nigeria has tasked the federal government over timely completion of the second Niger Bridge project.

Specifically, the organisation called on the federal government to send a supplementary budget to the National Assembly, in view of the huge slash of the budgetary allocation for the project in the 2018 budget.

Anambra State Chairman of the organisation, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, told journalists that the reduction of the budgetary allocation for such critical infrastructure was unacceptable and not in the best interest of the people.

The second Niger Bridge which is under construction was designed as a second bridge across the River Niger between Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha in Anambra State.

Okeke-Ogene noted that early completion of the second Niger Bridge was important to reduce the burden on the existing bridge which had remained the major link to the various parts of the country.

He cautioned against playing politics or linking such critical projects that impact directly on the lives of the people to elections, noting that the pace of work on federal road projects in the South East region had remained very slow and unimpressive.

The Ohaneze state president stated that the most effective way to quell mass agitations in the country was to ensure even distribution of democracy dividends to give everybody a sense of belonging irrespective of their ethnic or religious leanings.