By Chuwang Dungs
The Senator representing Taraba North, Shuaibu Lau, has refuted a report of him accusing the minister of works, David Umahi, of sabotaging federal road contracts in his constituency.
A national daily had reported that Lau attributed the inability to continue federal road projects in his constituency on the directive of Umahi.
In a statement issued in Jalingo, on Wednesday, Gidado Aminu, the project’s monitoring assistant to Lau, who was alleged to have made the statement against Umahi, dismissed the report as false.
According to him, he never said the minister of works is sabotaging federal road constructions in Taraba North constituency.
The statement reads : “My attention has just been drawn to a publication alleging that I made comments accusing the Minister of Works David Umahi, of “sabotaging” federal road constructions in Taraba north constituency. This falsehood must have sprung from the writer’s imagination, as I never said so.
“When the writer called me on phone to react to a live radio program called “Newspaper Review” on Rock FM, accusing my principal, Senator Shuaibu Lau, for being responsible for the lack of access road in his constituency and non performance.
“I told him my principal as a lawmaker is not responsible for the award and execution of contracts, however I explained to him that the projects were stopped for review and improvement based on the directive of the Minister of Works.
“I said it was the federal government that gave out the contracts and the federal government directed that the contracts should be stopped for review and improvement.
“I said contrary to reports, inherited projects had not been stepped down by the federal government, and President Bola Tinubu was committed to completing all inherited federal government roads.
“It was the President, out of his very exceptional magnanimity, that directed that all inherited projects should be improved, promising that he was going to be looking for ways to fund the projects, even outside the budgetary provisions, through the National Assembly.
“The projects are being reviewed to bring out the best results.
“We appealed to our constituents to remain calm and always get verification before making a public statement.”
