S’South stakeholders slam Atiku over comment on proposed coastal railway, highway projects

In his statement, Obono-Obla said, “It is disconcerting that
Atiku Abubakar, the former VP would be intentional and deliberately confusing
the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Railway and the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway under
the guise of oppositional politics and or promoting the virtues of transparency
and accountability.”

He said a cursory and deep reading of Atiku’s statement
reveals that he is vehemently opposed to these two projects.

According to him, Atiku is using politics to sabotage the
two well-conceived projects that can transform the Southern region in
particular and Nigeria in general.

Obono-Obla said “Atiku’s statement is full of sound and
fury, signifying nothing but a thinly veiled opposition to the two projects,
perhaps because of sectional and regional interests masked and disguised in
highly wired politics which has always been the bane of Nigeria.”

He alleged that the former VP is the same person who, in
2004, stutified the economic growth of the South South geopolitical region when
he was the Chairman of National Privatization Council of Nigeria when he
reportedly ensured the sale of Alscon plant in Ikot Abasi to undeserving
Russian investors, known as UC Rusal for $250 million.

It was conceived by the Federal Military Government, headed
by General Yakubu Gowon in the early 1970s to produce 193,000 tons of aluminum
annually at optimal capacity. It was to generate $400 million annually.

The late General Sani Abacha implemented the ALSCON Project
successfully when he was head of state.