The Federal Government has declared state of emergency on the construction of the Suleja-Minna road.
By Angela Atabo
The Federal Government has declared state of emergency on the construction of the Suleja-Minna road.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, made this known on Saturday during an inspection of the road.
Umahi explained that the road project was awarded initially to Salini Nigeria Limited, but work had either been done badly or abandoned at some point and efforts to get them to repair the road over a year and a half had been unsuccessful.
He said that the Niger 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 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 they worked but all the work they did, failed.
He said in-spite of the failed jod, 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.