By Aisha Maikudi Abdulkadir
The Federal Government has declared a state of emergency on the construction of the Suleja-Minna road, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, made this known during an inspection of the road at the weekend.
Umahi explained that the road project was initially awarded to Salini Nigeria Limited, however, the construction work had either been done poorly or abandoned at some point.
He said, efforts to get them to repair the road over a year and a half had been unsuccessful.
prior to this development, Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, had raised concerns directly with President Bola Tinubu, who directed the ministry to intervene.
He described the road as being “in a very terrible situation delaying travel time by seven hours instead of an hour and a half hours, and vehicles are falling and killing people. “I have declared these sections one and two emergency projects.
“The president directed that urgent action should be taken, and that is why we are here. “We will document the nature of the road and the contract for Nigerians to know why we declare it an emergency project and to be procured as such.
“When we go through due process and award the job, if the contractor waits for one day for mobilisation, I will terminate it because it’s an emergency one.
“If you cannot trust us to start work immediately and then we will now process your mobilisation, then you don’t want to be a partner in the new Nigeria that President Tinubu is developing,” he said.
Umahi explained that the Suleja-Minna road was an inherited project from the past administration, adding that the problem has been the contractors.
He said that the contractors were funded and worked, but all the work they did ultimately failed.
He said that, despite the failed job, some people were still lobbying for Salini to continue the project. “That is wickedness because our people will not continue to suffer like this. Contractors are engaged and paid, yet we don’t have value for money. “Who will people call? They call the president. They call the minister. So, we have to put that to a stop. Regardless of who is at fault, we hold that person accountable and take action. “As at today, Salini is still owing us and I have directed my ministry to scoop out the section of the road equal to what they are owing us, so that they can do it,” he said.
According to Umahi, the contract is irrevocably terminated due to the bad work. He, therefore, stated that if Salini failed to comply with the directive under the ministry’s supervision, the ministry would seek the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC’s) intervention to recover government funds. “There is no going back. This fight is a fight for Nigerians and we have no regrets doing this.
Umahi also stated that two contractors are now working on the road project and the governor had awarded part of the same road as part of his urban renewal agenda, as CCCC International Engineering Nigeria Ltd is handling it.
“The governor has asked us to allow the CCCC that has started part of the project to continue. The road is approximately 103 kilometres long and dualised (about 206 kilometres in total).
“The governor has done about 60 kilometers of the road .So we have a out146 kilometers left,” he said.
The minister said CCCC had been given 10 days to mobilise and begin work on the most critical seven km stretch of the road. “This is emergency procurement, work begins first, then pricing is verified by the Bureau of Public Procurement,” he added.