Jonathan - Government may not charge toll fees

President Goodluck Jonathan

Jonathan – Government may not charge toll fees

President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed the perception that the Federal Government plans to reintroduce toll gates on highways to raise money.

Jonathan made the dismissal in Abuja during a question-and-answer programme, tagged: ``Presidential Media Chat.’’

He described as erroneous, the perception in some quarters that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the reintroduction of the toll gates as a means of generating additional revenue for government.

He said, however, that a road constructed by a private company could be tolled.

``If a private company builds a road, then definitely that road will be tolled. But a road the Federal Government is building, we are not introducing Toll Gates. “, he said.

President Jonathan added that``There was a time we had a Federal Executive Council meeting and we mentioned that to control and monitor movement of vehicles you need to build tolls and that was misinterpreted as toll gates for the purpose of taking revenue.

``If we are deregulating at the same time we cannot introduce toll gates, but just on that toll, tell Nigerians that the Federal Government is not going to collect tolls on Federal Government roads.’’

The president said also that state governments were free to allow toll gates on roads built by private investors in their states.

Corruption

On corruption, Jonathan lamented that government was disturbed by the level of corruption in both public and private sectors of the nation’s economy.

He assured that government would continue support and assist its anti-corruption agencies as well as strengthen the investigative unit of the Nigeria Police to tackle corrupt practices.

On oil reserve, Jonathan said Nigeria must have at least six months oil reserve for use during periods of emergencies as against the current 54 days reserve being sustained by the NNPC.

NAN/Ugo