Slow Pace Of Work On Abuja-Lokoja Road Unacceptable, Tinubu’s Aide Tells Contractors

Senior Special Assistant on Community Engagement, North Central, to the President, Dr Abiodun Essiet, says the slow pace of work on the Abuja-Lokoja and the Lokoja-Benin projects is unacceptable.

She stated this yesterday during the inspection of ongoing federal road projects in Kogi State.

Recall that the minister of Works Engr. David Umahi, had last year terminated four road projects in Kogi State for poor performance.

The minister had, during an inspection of roads in the state, asked contractors to deploy in more sections to meet the deadline, but Months later, the contractors did not adhere to his directive.

Some of the contractors visited, including Sail through Nigeria Ltd, GELD Nigeria Ltd/Triacta Nigeria Ltd, Gitto, and CGC, did not meet the timeline and did not show signs of deploying additional equipment to do so.

Their project managers, taking turns, all admitted to having failed to meet the project timeline.

The Presidential aide expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of work and called on the Ministry of Works to ensure the job is delivered.

She said, “No, no, not at all, as the progress of work done is not encouraging at all. With just a few months left, they have achieved very little.

I’m not impressed with the level of progress being made, which is why enthusiasm is lacking.

That’s why we are pleading with the controller and the contractors to make sure that they intensify more efforts because this is a very busy road and a whole lot of people are expecting more from Mr President on this road, so we just want to urge the contractor to do more in terms of bringing more equipment, in terms of collaborating with other people to help make sure that this project is completed in due time, please,”.

The Project Manager of the Dualisation of Lokoja-Benin Road, being handled by CGC Nigeria Ltd, Abubakar Yaba, lamented the poor funding of the project.

He attributed the slow pace of work to the paucity of funds.

He said the project has attained 38 per cent completion with a time lapse of 90 per cent.

He, however, lamented that while over N59 billion was certified, only about N54 Billion was paid, with over N5 Billion outstanding.

He said, “Then the first commencement date is December 2012. The commencement date for Phase Two is October 2014. Then, the augmentation number commencement date is July 4, 2024.

Then, an advance payment of 16.7 billion was granted. Then, an advance payment of 2.8 billion was received. The amount certified to date is 59.6 billion.

The amount paid to date is $ 54.8 billion. The amount outstanding up to date is 4.7 billion”.

He continued, “Then our challenge on the project is the budget provision in 2025. There’s no provision for this project in 2025. Up to date, we still have this challenge and a challenge of the outstanding.”

But in a swift response, Dr Essiet disagreed with the contractor.

She said poor funding shouldn’t be a constraint, since the contractor had demonstrated financial capacity before being awarded the contract.

She said, “I think one of the things we look at when we give a project to a contractor is about your capacity, and Mr President assured us that the Renew Hope Intervention Fund will be channelled to pay this fund. Therefore, it is up to you, as a contractor, to complete your job as agreed upon.

“Because if you mentioned that you didn’t have the financial capacity to do this, they wouldn’t have awarded that contract to you. It’s because you assured us that you would finish this job. Mr President assured that the Renew Hope Fund will also be channelled to pay for all this.

That shouldn’t cause a delay. So wherever you can mop up funds, I can assure you that Mr President is going to pay.

“Wherever you can mop up funds, mop up funds, because this project is very critical.

People are waiting. People are waiting for the completion of this project to ease movement. So, please and thank you; we don’t want to come back the next time and say this. We have assured you of Mr President’s commitment, and the Minister of Works is also committed. But show us what you are made of. Show us your capacity to finish this road,” she said.

The Federal Controller of Works, Kogi State, Engr. Patiko Musa stated that complaints raised by the contractors were being addressed at the Ministry of Works Headquarters in Abuja. He assured that their requests for extensions and payments would be met in due course.