The Minister of Works, David Umahi, at the weekend declared an emergency on the ongoing work on the dualisation of the Suleja-Minna road, terminating the existing contract for lack of performance.
Umahi stated that President Bola Tinubu was concerned with the deplorable state of the road and directed that urgent action should be taken to fix the road to restore the confidence of the road users.
He maintained that the contractor, Messrs. Salini Nigeria Ltd., was responsible for the failure in the delivery of the project on time and within specification. He added that the termination of the job due to non-performance was irrevocable.
However, Umahi, who also inspected Section I of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano federal road being constructed on continuously reinforced concrete pavement, said he was elated by the progress and quality of work being done by the contractor handling the project, Infiouest International Limited.
He was accompanied by the junior minister in the ministry, Bello Goronyo; the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Onyekachi Nwebonyi and spokesperson to Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 presidential campaign, Segun Sowunmi, and directors of key departments of the Federal Ministry of Works.
Umahi stated that the ongoing work vindicated the Federal Ministry of Works’ decision to sever the contract with Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd due to cost differentials.
He praised the commitment of the President Bola Tinubu in ensuring speedy and quality delivery of the project, a statement by Umahi’s spokesman, Uchenna Orji, said.
“Let me say that I am very grateful to Mr. President for the support in the reconstruction of this project. When we terminated this project because of the cost differences between the Ministry of Works and Julius Berger, it became a very big challenging task for me.
“ But without the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it would have been very difficult to redeem my integrity. Today, I can say that my integrity and that of the Ministry of Works have been redeemed by the quality of work that Infiouest is doing,” he added.
Recounting the additional work approved by the President within the route of the project and the quality of work being done by the contractor, he said: ” In section I, which is 38 kilometres plus section II, which is 40 by 2, 80 kilometres, we have completed over 11 kilometres with reinforced concrete pavement.
“You needed to see this road before now. We are pulverising. We are putting a stone base, about 80-inch stone base. We are putting cement to mix it and compact it. We are putting in Y-20 reinforcement.
“We have it in bridges and then at 20-cm intervals, and then we are putting a 16-millimetre reinforced concrete with wires, and then we are completing 200-millimetre reinforced concrete grade 40. And so we have completed 11 kilometers,” he added.
Following the high price submitted by Julius Berger Plc for the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road awarded by the past administration, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had terminated the contract with Julius Berger Plc and approved the award of contract for the completion of the outstanding sections of the road.
Umahi stated that there had been concerns over the deplorable state of the inherited project, which was a source of nightmare to road users before the intervention of the President. According to him, today, tremendous milestones have been attained in the completion of the road.
The Deputy Majority Whip of the Senate, Onyekachi Nwebonyi, said: “It is on record that you are the only Minister of Works that has always done constant supervision of projects, all geared towards ensuring value for money and quality jobs.”
In his remarks after being taken round the project, Sowunmi said he was impressed by the quality and speed of the project execution, which he confirmed was of the same quality with the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway projects.
He thanked the President for the job he is doing in the area of road infrastructure development and appealed to critics to have a change of heart.
Emmanuel Addeh
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