A Civil Society Organization (CSO) – the Anti-Corruption Network – has described the reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road project recently awarded at the cost of N797billion as the most expensive on earth.
The Executive Secretary of the ACN, Senator Dino Melaye, told reporters at a press briefing in Abuja, that the project needed further scrutiny to determine its actual cost.
Melaye described the cost of the contract as outrageous saying that the award of the 375-kilometer road at N797billion showed that a Kilometer of the road would gulp a whooping N2.1billion for reconstruction.
He said: “On the 3rd of March 2021, the Federal Executive Council approved the reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road at the cost of N797billion.
“The road is said to be 375 kilometers in total. This is probably the most expensive road construction on the earth at the average of US$6 million (N2.1 billion) per kilometer.
“The Anti-Corruption Network has observed with dismay that the cost of road construction in Nigeria has been consistently outrageous which now calls for serious scrutiny.
“According to a report put out by the apex bank of the world, World Bank, the cost of constructing 1 kilometer of road is