Plateau Govt Approves New Contractor For Lalong Legacy Projects

Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong has approved a new contractor for the completion of the Lalong Legacy Projects following the termination of the contract with the previous contractor.

This was one of the decisions taken at the end of the State Executive Council meeting held at the Council Chambers of the new Government House, Little Rayfield Jos which was presided over by the governor.

Briefing newsmen after the council meeting, permanent secretary of Ministry of Finance, Mr Kenneth Horlong who stood in for the commissioner for finance said the new contractor Mssrs United Integrated Construction Company was given the contract at the sum of N26.6billion with a completion period of 32 weeks.

He said the projects which include nine primary schools, six secondary schools and six hospitals, are world-standard and located across the 17 local government areas of the state.

Recall that the legacy project initial amount was N59 billion before it was later rescoped to N29 billion. The state government later terminated the contract because of poor performance by the contractor handling the project, Bleneson Services Nigeria Limited.

Meanwhile the contractor has rejected the termination of his contract by the state government. The firm said the termination of the contract via the media was an abuse of process vowing that it will resist it.

However at the time of filing this report the new contractor has not mobilised to site.

Similarly, in March this year governor Lalong flagged off the construction of the British America flyover at the cost of N9 billion.

The opposition party the PDP criticised the APC led government for awarding the contract nine months to the end of the administration. It lamented that works at the site of Lalong legacy projects were not in progress because of litigation and he is awarding another contract barely a few months to the end of his administration.

But the state commissioner for information and communication, Hon Dan Manjang said the governor will not leave any abandoned projects assuring that the administration will complete all the projects it initiated.