The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has directed the contractors handling sections I-IV of the Lokoja-Benin Road in Kogi and Edo states, to immediately sign the documents on the reviewed contracts or face the termination of their jobs.
The directive was handed down to the contractors during the minister’s meeting with the representatives of Mothercat, CCECC, Dantata & Sawoe, CGC and RCC, held at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
Umahi accused the construction firms of playing pranks, wondering why the contractors who were part of the process of re-scoping and reviewing the contract specifications failed to sign the reviewed contract documents after agreeing to do the job based on the new specification.
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“I had to go through the road myself, and I realised that some sections of the road could not survive asphalt. So we started meetings that took us over five months with all the contractors. In the meetings, we agreed to re-scope the project.
“We said the new lanes should be done on concrete and the other ones done on asphalt. So we kept the contracts up and we all signed the documents and based on signing the documents, we took it to Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
“From the BPP, we went to FEC, and before we went to FEC, we demanded for them to approve that they can do the job. They all gave us letters of approval,” he stated.
The minister however revealed that the contractors were given the jobs without having the required manpower and equipment to do the task, and warned that henceforth any contractor signing a contract must do so alongside the basic rate and timeline.
“So the position of the government is that if you are not signing the contracts between today and tomorrow, you will forgo the jobs. You can go to court. We will not enter into any condition for further negotiation.
“You don’t want to work, leave the job. It’s not compulsory that you must be the one to do the job. You cannot be on site, and the people are dying. The vehicles are falling down, and you’re playing politics with the lives of the people. And we fold our hands and leave you. If you are not working, pack your things out of that site,” he added.
