The federal government has given construction companies until April 25 and 26, 2024, to sign a N870 billion contract for the Abuja-Lokoja-Benin highway, warning that failure to meet the deadline will lead to their removal from the project.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, explained that the previous contract for the 480km-long project under the NNPCL Tax Credit Scheme has expired, necessitating the need for a new contract.
Umahi outlined conditions for signing the contract, including working at the basic rate, adhering to the timetable, and deploying personnel and equipment across three sections of the project.
Contractors present at the meeting included Mothercat Nigeria Ltd, CGC Nigeria Ltd, RCC, and Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company Nigeria Ltd.
Umahi attributed the decision for a new contract to the behavior of foreign contractors. He noted that the contract underwent due diligence, and augmentation was approved.
The Minister stated that most contractors accepted the reviewed terms without objections, except for RCC, which raised concerns after accepting the offer.
Upon assuming office, Umahi discovered discrepancies in the total contract sum for the Lokoja-Benin road, initially N121 billion but later increased by the previous administration to over N870 billion, which he deemed excessive.
Umahi withheld presenting the Certificate of No Objections to FEC due to his findings that some sections of the road couldn’t support asphalt overlay, prompting a re-scoping of the project to utilize concrete overlay on new lanes and asphalt on other sections.
This led to the retention of the old cost of over N870b which the contractors signed after assuring that they could do the job, he added, saying, “the arrogance of contractors in the country is annoying, a country where contractors are dictating what happens is insulting.
“In the Ministry of Works, we have contractors with 17 contracts who have no personnel or equipment to do the job, they are just playing politics, staying on a job for 17 years that is what is playing out.
“The position of the government is that if you are not signing the contract between today (Thursday) and tomorrow, you will forgo the jobs, you can go to court. We will not enter into any conditions for negotiations.
“This contract is over N2b per kilometre, what else do you want?
“If you are signing the contract, you sign it along the basic rates, and timetable and deploy in three sections or I will terminate the job. Enough of this insult, enough of this politics, enough of playing with the psyche of the people”.
The Minister reaffirmed the instruction for the Ministry to conduct a comprehensive assessment of all ongoing road projects nationwide within a seven-day period. This assessment will focus on evaluating the qualifications of contractors as well as the quantity of personnel and equipment present at each site.
He emphasized the importance of assessing the capacity of contractors entrusted with Federal Government road projects to guarantee their successful completion.
Despite some contractors requesting additional time to review the new contract, the Minister remained firm, saying, “Sign the contract or leave the job; you don’t need to do the job”.