Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has lashed out at the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi.
Makinde was reacting over his recent clash with Arise Television presenter, Rufai Oseni, regarding the cost of the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project approved by President Bola Tinubu.
Recall that Rufai had requested that the minister analyse the project’s cost, kilometre by kilometre.
Umahi, who seemed displeased with the kind of questions, became angry after Oseni accused him of reporting him to President Bola Tinubu over his views on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road.
The former Ebonyi State governor said he is a professor in engineering, to the dismay of Rufai, who demanded to know the year the minister became a professor.
Umahi, who explained that he did not obtain a professorship from any school but from his experience in the engineering field, added, “Keep quiet and stop saying what you don’t know. I’m a professor in this field. You don’t understand anything.”
Reacting to a heated exchange, Makinde, during an interview with journalists on Friday, asked Umahi to stop dancing around over the cost of the project.
He said, “They asked a minister how much the coastal road is, and then you (Umahi) are dancing around and going to say that no, the next kilometre is different from the next kilometres. Then what is the average cost?
“When we did the Oyo to Iseyin road then, it was about N9.99 billion, almost N10 billion. About 34 or 35 kilometres, average cost is about N238 million per kilometre.
“But when we did Iseyin to Ogbomoso, that was 76 kilometres, it was about N43 billion, average cost is about N500 million per kilometre. And we had two bridges, one over the Ogun river and then one at Ogbomoso end.”
