Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, at the weekend, threatened to terminate the multi-billion naira Benin-Warri Road reconstruction project if the contractor, Levant Construction Company, fails to comply strictly to the scope and specification of the work.
He expressed dissatisfaction on the work and subsequently ordered the ministry’s supervising engineers to issue a warning letter to the contractors on Monday and after 14 days should the contractor fails to do the right thing, he will personally terminate the job.
Umahi, who was on an inspection tour of work done on federal roads across the country, was received by officials of the Federal Ministry Works in Benin City and that of Edo State Ministry of Road and Bridges.
The former governor of Ebony State, after inspecting the Benin–Ologbo axis of the Road, lamented that contractors in the country were playing politics with Nigerians and warned that he would not tolerate such under his watch.
He ordered, “By Monday, give them a warning letter to start permanent work and if by Monday they don’t start, give 14-day notice of termination. We paid multi-billion for this job and we have seen that a lot of contractors in this country are just playing politics with us and we have emphasised on this severally.
“We will pay mobilisation fee to a contractor, we will never pay variation on price (VOP) for that amount we have paid and that is the problem with Levant and after 14 days of notice of termination, I will come and terminate the job myself.
“You cannot do this kind of job in your country, it can only happen in Africa. You can’t collect our money and be misbehaving like this. It is a big shame, look at how people are suffering everywhere and we should be happy clapping for you? I have had more than 10 meetings with them on this job. If anything goes wrong, they will be calling the President.”
The minister later continued with his inspection of the Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi-Abuja expressway.
