By Joyce Onuora
The Minister of Works, Sen. Nweze David Umahi has rebutted the unwarranted, false, misleading, and damaging report published in Daily Trust Newspapers of 21st January 2025, which falsely represented the Federal Ministry of Works as having awarded a section of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road dualization to *Infoquest Nigeria Ltd.
In a press conference held on 21st January 2025 at the Conference Hall of the Honourable Minister of Works and attended by the Honourable Minister of State for Works, Rt. Hon. Barr. Mohammed Bello Goronyo, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works, Engr. Folunso O. Adebiyi and key directors of the Ministry, the Honourable Minister, described as mischievous, insensitively misleading and injurious the statement credited to him in the said publication, where he was wrongly quoted to have said that Infoquest Nigeria Ltd secured a “No objection” of N252.89 billion from the Bureau of Public Procurement ( BPP) for the rehabilitation of a section Abuja- Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road and where they described the Ministry as having awarded the said contract to an obscure company.
He made it clear that the Ministry had no business relationship with Infoquest Nigeria Ltd. He further made it known that the company that has a contractual relationship with the Ministry on the said project is Infiouest International Limited and that the company is corporately active and is absolutely in compliance with all legal requirements and regulations set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act. He berated the mischief created by the publication as a deliberate orchestration by a cartel to malign the Ministry, undermine the efforts of the Renewed Hope administration in revolutionizing road infrastructure development and demarket the company that has proven capacity in road construction. He demanded from Daily Trust Newspapers a public apology to the Federal Ministry of Works to be published in at least 5 national dailies for unjustifiably publishing falsehood against the Ministry of Works.
The Honourable Minister also alluded to the mischiefs and deliberate misrepresentation of facts contained in the sponsored publications made in several national dailies by Julius Berger Plc recently on the reason why they reneged in their contractual obligations in respect of the section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road they were handling before it was determined. He wondered why the coordinated onslaught of falsehood, blackmail, gangup by adversaries to the policy of government just because of the Ministry’s insistence on a new order of value for money, quality assurance and best practices in project pricing and execution. He urged the public and the press to join in this desirable fight against national sabotage by some contractors.
In his remarks, the Honourable Minister of State for Works said he was delighted by the proactiveness and resoluteness shown by the Ministry in decapitating the intentions of those who made the false publication against the Ministry which according to him was intended to distract the Ministry and undermine its confidence before Nigerians. He called on the media operators not to allow themselves to be used by the fifth columnists to publish unfounded reports to undermine the Renewed Hope agenda but should always crosscheck their information with the appropriate authority so as to let out only the truth to the public.
In his vote of thanks, the Permanent Secretary described the press briefing as thoughtful and timely. He harped on the importance of development journalism and urged the media to always uphold the truth in their professional duties of information dissemination rather than allow themselves to be used as a tool in the hands of enemies of our national development.
This was contained in a press release signed and issued by Hon. Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, Special Adviser ( Media) to the Honourable Minister of Works
