Stories by Etta Michael Bisong
Abuja
The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, has rejected the statement credited to her in a national daily (not Blueprint) on Saturday 26th April, 2014 where she was quoted as admitting that “the Federal Government erred in commencing work on the construction of the second Niger bridge without consideration for the Environmental Impact Assessment Law (E.I.A) and that the ministry has consequently stopped work on the project.”
According to a circular issued by the Deputy Director of Press, Mr. Ben Goong, said without mincing words, the Ministry wishes to state in no unmistakable terms that the minister never at any point, either at that press conference or any other occasion made that statement, adding that report of the paper in question is false, misleading and politically motivated.
The statement added that the report is totally lacking in facts and depth. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no record anywhere in the Ministries of Environment or Works or the consortium handling the project indicating that the Minister of Environment has stopped the work on the second Niger Bridge.
He recalled that the conference which held on Friday the 25th of April, 2014 at the instance of the courtesy visit of the Turkish Construction Forum on the minister, His Excellency the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria told the minister that his country is interested in seeing that Turkish construction companies operating in Nigeria comply fully with the environmental laws of Nigeria. In response to that statement, the minister of Environment told the visiting delegation that “the Nigerian government has placed a high premium on Environmental issues, and that is why Government itself has to follow due process by obtaining an interim certificate of Environmental Impact Assessment on the 2nd Niger Bridge.”
Furthermore, the release added that “what we have, and which is properly documented is an interim Environmental Impact Assessment Certificate duly signed by the Minister of Environment. The stoppage of work on the project for which the Hon. Minister of Environment has given full approval in writing therefore exists only in the imagination of the Nation Newspaper.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the Nation Newspaper has chosen to suppress obvious facts just in order to advance its mischief.
“We make bold to say that we have the proceedings of that press conference on tape, both in audio and video, and that at no time did the Minister ever said she stopped work on the project.”
He urged members of the public to disregard the story and indeed the distraction it is intended to generate.