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FG Assures East-West Road Completion
The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, last Friday, assured the public of its commitment to complete the remaining part of the East-West Road to enhance its economic use.
Director, High Way and Rehabilitation, Federal Ministry of Works, Mr. Folorunso Esan, disclosed this in Port Harcourt, during the inspection of the road handed over to the ministry by the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry.
The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs on May 31, handed over the completion of the road from Section 1-4 to the Ministry of Works and Housing, to ensure speedy completion of the project and achieve the objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Esan stated that the ministry was on inspection to ascertain the level of the work completed and the ones yet to be completed as they took over the completion of the road from the Niger Delta Ministry.
He noted that the entire road was about 388km and the Onne, Eleme axis just 15km as such could not be beyond what the ministry could surmount in good time and deliver the whole project.
Esan explained that there were two sections of the construction; one of the sections was from Port Harcourt to Ahoada; section two, sub-section one of 47km which had been completed and the marking started.
According to him, the only outstanding section was the upgrading of the Onne junction to Eleme, and it requires additional approval for augmentation.
“We are seeking for the approval to add more money to the contractor to take care of the upgrading.
“The other 19km axis of Bayelsa to Mbiama junction road, also handled by Setraco, is still part of it and they are going to be done as it is also on documentation,” he said.
Esan mentioned the drains as one of the challenges of the Onne, Eleme axis due to the blockage of all the water ways to channel water on that route.
He stated that even if the roads were repaired, they would still go bad due to lack of drains, saying that the ministry would see what it could do about the drainage system when it starts work on site.
The Director, High Way South-South, Mr. Godwin Ekeh, said since government was continuum, it was the reason for the takeover of the project from the Niger Delta Ministry by the Federal Ministry of Works.
He stated that the aim of the inspection was to ascertain if what they saw on handover paper were verifiable on the site, adding that they had seen it and had completed most of them.
According to Ekeh, “some areas with small faults are what we can handle and we have what we call augmentation, which is revised total cost, and when it is approved, we will come back to site, we also have another window of funding called Sukuk.
”All the contractors that handled them before now were given money, so once we are paid; we believe the contractors will go back to site.
“We have processes to follow and we are on it; we are talking about 100km in a whole from the Eket,AkwaIbom axis to Port Harcourt,” he said.
He assured the public that the project would be completed and not abounded.
The Controller of Works in Rivers State,Mr.KoyaOlugbenga, also urged the public to be calm as the road would be completed because efforts were geared towards the direction by the Federal Government.
According to Olugbenga, “the road is important to the administration and that is why it is doing everything possible to achieve it.
“Though funding has been a major issue, you cannot compare the funding that will be used by Federal Ministry of Works to that spent by the Niger Delta Ministry,” he said.
Olugbenga also assured the public that work would not stop as soon as every process of documentation was through because funding was virtually perfected.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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