We’ve Completed 260 Palliative Projects Worth N208bn – Umahi

Minister of Works Engr. David Umahi has said President Bola Tinubu has completed 260 palliative projects initiated in 2023 at the sum of N208 billion.

The minister also distanced himself from a social media post announcing plans by Tinubu’s ministers to travel to London to showcase his achievements.

At a ministerial briefing yesterday in Abuja, he said he had not been contacted with such proposal, adding that it takes a written presidential approval for a serving minister to travel outside the country.

“I saw where people posted that we are going to London, I’ve never been to London in the past two years. I never discussed with anybody about going to London, I’ve too much work here to do than talk about going to London so we shouldn’t just take things on social media to be true,” he said.

The minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, in his opening remarks at the briefing, dismissed reports circulating in both traditional and online media suggesting that the ministerial press briefing session had been relocated from Abuja to London.

Umahi said President Tinubu inherited 2,604 major projects and later initiated 65 other new major projects under his administration.

He added that the administration also started four legacy projects and of course, “We have completed 260 palliative projects totalling N208bn.”

“This 2604 inherited projects totalling about N13trn and of course N1trn was kept owed contractors for completed jobs. With subsidy removal, the projects came to N17-18 trn and today, projecting that is about N20 trn but by the ingenuity of the president, he directed that we prioritise these inherited projects along six geopolitical zones and we came up with a total of 440 projects that needed to be reviewed due to economic indices that changed.

“Aside from projects completed and commissioned, We have also completed another set of 19 projects.

Mr President in 2023 directed immediate action on 260 palliative projects, these projects have been completed up to 99 percent. These projects are very important, if these palliatives were not fixed, it would have been difficult to move from one State to another. I commend the president for taking on infrastructure projects,” he said.