The federal government has expressed disappointment with the slow pace of work on the Enugu-Onitsha road and directed the enforcement of Operation Free Our Roads to ensure compliance.
Minister of works, Engr. David Umahi, gave the directive after a meeting with the funding counterpart, MTN, representatives of Enugu State government and the contractors handling the project RCC Ltd and Nigercat Ltd in Abuja.
He warned that contractors delaying jobs were on their own as the federal government would not accept a phased handover of projects and has phased out VOP in contract administration.
He maintained that the contractors must, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda, maintain all roads handled by them until they are fully completed and handed over to the government.
He further told RCC Ltd, “When where you are working is almost going bad, it’s better to get it finished. As a policy, we are not doing a phased handover. You have to finish your job, and then we inspect it, and if you take 10 years to finish your job, it’s your duty to maintain the one that you have done that is failing.”
Dualisation of Enugu-Onitsha project is funded by MTN under the tax credit scheme.
The minister in a statement by his special adviser on media, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji, expressed disappointment with the condition of the road under construction and blamed the suffering of road users on lack of commitment and sheer insensitivity of the contractors on the plight of the road users.
He said, “MTN has engaged the subcontractors, two subcontractors, RCC Ltd and Nigercat Ltd. The first time I supervised that project, I discovered that the Nigercat section where we have a binder course had failed. I directed that the binder course must be scarified and reinstated, and I knew it was inherited. I want to believe that it has been done.
“Let me express my disappointment over the slow pace of work on that project. It’s one of the worst roads in this country. Everywhere we have diversion; diverting from the one that RCC and the Nigercat had completed, the contractors are not kind enough to even put stone based on the diversion points. So, by the reason of the launching of our Operation Free our Roads, it is now a violation of policy on the side of the controllers and directors of the Federal Ministry of Works where we have vehicles falling on any project that is ongoing or where there are pot holes on our roads”
