Akwa Ibom State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has read riot act to contractors, warning them of drastic consequences of abandoning the jobs awarded to them by his predecessor Udom Emmanuel.
Eno, who, handed down the charge when he undertook an unscheduled inspection visit to the Dakkada Luxury Estate (DLE) on Airport Road, Uyo, the state capital, to ascertain the pace of work. He was miffed by the stoppage of work by the contractors.
Accompanied by his deputy, Akon Eyakenyi, secretary to the state government (SSG), Prince Enobong Uwa, and head of civil service (HoS), Elder Effiong Essien, the governor expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of work and the absence on site of government engineers from the supervising ministry, and vowed to make more unannounced visits.
He said, “This is 9:30am and there is no engineer on site from the ministry overseeing this project to supervise what the contractors are doing. This is just the beginning. I will be going on inspections without prior notice to anybody. We must wake up to work. The days of just coming to give report that we cannot verify are over. That is the new look of government.”
Warning that it would no longer be business -as – usual, the governor stressed that “more of such impromptu visits to government project sites should be expected in my administration,” adding that he was determined to ascertain for himself value received for the state’s funds.
He, therefore, directed the SSG, Prince Uwah, to immediately look into the project to unravel the extent of government’s commitment and reciprocal value delivered by contractors, maintaining that “I will only grant further approvals for funds on confirmation of corresponding progress.”
“This project is a flagship project, flagged off by the former Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and we will drive it to its logical conclusion. Let no one be left in doubt that this project will be abandoned. I want to know how much has been paid for this project. I want to know why our engineers are not on site as at this time,” he stressed.
Inspecting the estate’s main access road, the governor insisted on extracting commitments from the contracting company, Amitec Construction /Development Limited. The company’s project engineer, Aniekeme Otong, assured that his firm was committed to timely and quality delivery of the main access road, giving an estimated completion time of two weeks from the day of inspection.
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