FG gives ultimatum to contractors handling Lokoja-Benin Road

The Minister  of Works, Sen. David Umahi, has directed  the  contractors handling  sections I-IV of Lokoja-Benin, Obajana Junction-Benin roads in Kogi and Edo states to immediately sign the new contract as reviewed or face the termination of their job by the Federal Ministry of Works in accordance with the condition of service.

This directive was given to the contractors  in a meeting with the representatives of  Mothercat  Ltd, CCECC Ltd, Dantata & Sawoe Ltd, CGC Ltd and RCC Ltd  at the Ministry’s Headquarters, yesterday in Abuja.

In a statement, Umahi directed  the ministry to carry out a comprehensive audit of the ongoing  projects with a view to  knowing  the  status of work done, the capacity  of personnel  and equipment being used by the contractors.

The minister frowned at the pranks of the contractors who were part of the process of re-scoping and reviewing the contract specifications but failed to sign the review  contract documents after signing that they would do the job based on the new specification.

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He said “The project was initially N121bn but before the administration of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the project was already reviewed to about over N870bn. When I came in as minister, I saw that the project was over-bloated, and I refused to take the No objection to FEC. I had to go through the road myself, and I realised that some sections of the road could not survive asphalt. So, we started meetings that took us over five months with all the contractors, and in the meetings, we agreed  to re-scope the project. So, we re-scoped the project where we said okay, the new lanes should be done on concrete and the other ones done on asphalt.”

“We kept the contracts up and we all signed the documents  and based on signing the documents, we took it to BPP and from BPP we went to FEC, and before we went to FEC, we demanded for them to approve that they can do the job. They all gave us letters of approval.”

He  wondered  why  contractors were given jobs without having the required manpower and equipment to do the job and warned that henceforth any contractor signing a contract must sign alongside the basic rate and timeline.

He said, ”The position of the government is that if you are not signing the contracts between today and tomorrow, you will forgo the jobs. You can go to court. We will not enter into any condition for further negotiation. This contract is over N2 billion per kilometre. You don’t have equipment to do the work. Let me even assure you that if you are signing the contract, you will sign it alongside the basic rates.”

The CGC, in its reply, expressed commitment to the directive of the minister.