The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has urged contractors of the Lekki Deep Seaport project to speed up work to enable government grant necessary approvals before the next general election in Nigeria.
Amaechi made this known in a statement on Saturday while inspecting the ongoing construction of the facility in Lagos.
“I want to congratulate you for the very huge progress, by the time we came here, there were no civil works. It was just pure sand, you have tried.
“I am suggesting that if you work day and night you will go far and complete the work before commissioning. If the President sees it, approval will be easier.
“You need to speed up the work so we can get approval from the government side before election, process of election will be completed in July.
“This is because by law, six months to election people start politics and if you wait till that time, you won’t meet anyone in the office,” he said.
Amaechi said that the port should be automated to avoid all forms of physical contact.
Speaking during the tour, the Chief Technical Officer, Lekki Port, Steven Heukelom, explained that construction work on the project was on course and as scheduled.
He noted that dredging and reclamation works had reached 89.93 per cent completion, quay wall 85.65 per cent completion, breakwater 79.66 per cent completion, the landside infrastructure development 67.82 per cent completion.
Heukelom also informed the minister that work had commenced on the marine services jetty, which the NPA would use to carry out their marine services obligation.
He commended the acting Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, for the support and partnership in preparing the port to start operations.
Bello-Koko reaffirmed the agency’s readiness to provide marine services for the ports operations. He said NPA was procuring tugboats and other necessary infrastructure for the smooth takeoff of the port.
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