Federal government has terminated the 43-kilometre Port-Harcourt-Aba-bound road contract handled by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation over poor performance.
The government said the decision stemmed from the contractor’s failure to improve its work despite repeated warnings, which led to the project’s collapse despite the huge funds expended.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, disclosed this while speaking to newsmen on Sunday after inspecting the project.
Umahi said the government would find a competent indigenous contractor to take over the job and ensure its completion.
“Today is the 19th of October, the Controller reported that the Aba-bound portion of Port Harcourt-Aba Road being constructed by CCECC is at the verge of total collapse.
“This job, 43 kilometres from Port Harcourt to Aba, is an inherited project, and since we came on board, we have been doing everything, putting funds to see how we can finish one carriage way.
“And so we started working with CCECC on this one carriageway using concrete to do the inner shoulder and the outer shoulder to ensure the road lasts, while they are using the Asphalt to do the 7.3 carriage way.
“And their construction method has been a severe concern, where you will do binder for over a stretch of 30 kilometres and you are not wearing. We have warned CCECC more than 20 times and told them the implications of putting on a binder without doing a shoulder or wearing.”
He continued, “And I want the press to capture the failure of a road the federal government has used taxpayers’ money to pay for. And CCECC has consistently refused to obey all the instructions. I have been here more than seven times. The road almost failed if you got to the Port Harcourt end, which they did for about two years or thereabouts.”
While several letters written to the contractor to maintain the road have fallen on deaf ears, the Minister said, “So I have to take responsibility and make a decision. Number one, the Port Harcourt-bound is discontinued; CCECC will no longer do it.
“I will direct the Ministry of Works to scout for qualified indigenous contractors to handle the Port Harcourt-bound. They should be the contractor starting work immediately, so why should we source funds for them?”
Umahi said, despite the contract termination, the company must ensure that the binder is milled out on the project because it has been paid for, and they threatened to shut all their projects in the country if they fail to do so.
“The site handled by CCECC should issue them a 14-day notice of termination of this job, and I want this directive to go very wide. After 14 days they fail to mill out the binder and replace it correctly, they have to initiative it, they have to commit to doing that even if they are going to do it during the dry season they have to maintain the ones they have done and they put in writing that they are going to mill out the binder at their own cost and then be able to put a new binder which we have paid for.
“If they don’t do that, I will shut down all their projects in Nigeria. I will do that. So the notice of termination must be issued before Wednesday, and I will publish it so that nobody is going to sabotage the efforts that the President is putting in.”
He expressed bitterness that contractors with more than 25 jobs being supported by the Federal Government would be putting up such a poor showing, saying it doesn’t matter what the company says to stakeholders; the decision has been taken.
Umahi added, “Our conscience is evident, and we will publish all the warnings we gave to CCECC on this project so that the whole country will see them. When we are being de-marketed, nobody will say anything about the contractor.
“When we manage to pay, and then they cannot do the proper construction, they have to pay for it. If from tomorrow they don’t get to start amending this, I will come back and arrest the Chinese people who are on this project because they have taken the money, and they have to maintain these places.
“I was here three weeks ago. I begged them to maintain this mess; they did and didn’t do anything about it. Now it is developing, and very soon vehicles will start falling, and then people will start dying, and nobody will call them. So if they don’t do it, I will get them arrested.”
