By John Alechenu, Abuja
Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has threatened to drag three contractors handling sections of the Abuja-Lokoja Road before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Umahi issued the threat during an inspection visit which took him from Abuja to the Obajana Junction section of the road, on Saturday.
The minister was particularly miffed that one of the contractors delivered only three kilometres out of 400, two years after the contract was awarded.
Umahi said, “The three jobs we gave out in 2023, they may be facing the EFCC. We summoned them to the office.
“It’s when they come, we give them a timeline within the law, in line with the agreement and if they fail then we have no more choice than to hand over to the EFCC and ICPC to recover the funds.
“Their quality of work is good but the pace is terrible and that’s why we decided to come by ourselves to see this thing.
“But we’re going to be very hard on ourselves as Ministry of Works because I think we need to turn a new leaf in terms of pushing these contractors.
“We need it. As leaders in the office, we need to know that these three sections of the job has not gone anywhere since 2023 September.
“So, for two years, a contractor that has three kilometres of 400 meters. How can we justify that?
“Our staff in the field are also supposed to raise alarm and that is what we are going to be charging them to do now. If they don’t do so, we’re going to hold them responsible.”
On his general assessment of the project, the Minister said, “From Abuja to Lokoja is about 230 kilometres by two, so we’re talking about 460 kilometres.
“The president is already intervening in over 230 kilometres so we have another 200 kilometres left and the road is so terrible. So bad, the truth is that anywhere you turn to is a priority. What the president inherited is frightening because in every region, you have this problem.
“You just get to North Central alone, go to Niger State, you see a lot of issues. You go between Abuja you see a lot of issues, you put your head towards Benue, it is uncountable but the president is doing quite a lot.
“Everything cannot be completed in two years or four years but we are badly challenged but we’re not giving up.
“The contractors we have, you know JRB, starting from Abuja and he’s doing a fantastic job. You know he has about 22 kilometres of the route he’s doing for N20 billion and he’s done over 15 kilometres we’ve seen the job, we are happy with that.
“Then we met Guild. Guild has a total of 53 kilometres for N56 billion. It’s an inherited project and he came to us and decided to turn the route from flexible pavement to concrete and we’ve seen the work. The work’s quality is very high but the pace is very slow.
“Then we have Trucrete. Trucrete is taking over the job of Bulletin. The past administration terminated the job of Bulletin 47 kilometres and the cost is about N90 billion and it’s done on reinforced concrete.
“He’s doing very well in terms of quality we begged him to increase the pace. We’ve also gone ahead to procure another 86 kilometres within that axis so if you add 86 kilometres plus 47 kilometres plus 20 kilometres plus 53 kilometres and then you have small contractors that are doing very badly like SOJI.
“The three contractors were part of the intervention of Mr. President as early as 2023 but you can see that they are all below 20 percent in completion, with some of them.
“These are the contractors on the road and of course, this one is part of the four sections.
This one you are seeing for CGC that is starting from here.”
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