The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra has criticized the Federal Government over its decision to suspend the reconstruction of the eastern railway project.
MASSOB, in a statement by its leader, Uchenna Madu, on Friday in Owerri, the Imo State capital, accused the FG of deliberately excluding the people of the South-East in infrastructural development.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said it would not be able to complete the eastern narrow gauge railway corridor before the end of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) in May 2023 due to non-availability. foreign loans needed to finance the project.
In April 2022, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation commenced construction of the 2,044.1km Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge railway project, which the then Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, said would boost economic activities in 14 states, including five. Southeastern states.
Amaechi added that the laying of the railway tracks could reach the Enugu State capital in September 2022 with the aim of completing the project before May 2023.
But while inspecting the progress of the works in September, the Minister of Transport, Mu’azu Sambo, disclosed that the contractor in charge of the project, China Civil Engineering and Construction Company, complained of continuous attacks on its workers around the axis in Abia State. railway corridor
However, MASSOB said the FG continued to use the proceeds from the oil reserves in the South East to develop the northern states to the detriment of the Igbo region.
“The Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari is not ashamed of the impunity they have committed and are still perpetrating through various sectors of their corrupt administration. The Federal Government led by Muhammadu Buhari rapidly and rigorously developed the major northern states and built and promoted modern rail transport. in the northern states and Lagos State, including the construction of a highway with crude oil money from the southeastern states.
“MASSOB also disagrees and rejects the report by the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari that Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company workers are continuously harassed by youths in Abia State. This Chinese construction company has not started their work in Abia State, their workers are not even in Abia State ».
