The Federal Government has terminated the contract for the reconstruction of the Benin-Sapele-Warri Road (Section 1: Benin – Imasabor) because the contractor has not met it’s expectations.
The Permanent Secretary has been directed to officially terminate the contract, beginning with a joint measurement process, and notifying the company’s bank for repayment of the Advance Payment Guarantee (APG).
The Minister of Works, David Umahi announced this in a statement,at the Federal capital, Abuja after a meeting which acknowledged the slow pace of the road project under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
According to the Minister, “We have three sections there. We have the Levant section. Unfortunately, Levant has not lived up to expectations. We gave them a series of warning letters. We also gave them the last termination notice. They did not respond”
He said that this was inspite of efforts appealing to the Edo State Government to handle some of the worst parts of the road, which yielded fruits, yet, Levant abandoned the site.
“Failing which, the matter would be taken to EFCC,” he warned.
Despite the setback with Levant, the minister expressed satisfaction with the commitments from other contractors.
“Geld has accepted to go back to their section; we’ve agreed to review their project. SKECC has about one kilometre, which they started with milled asphalt… We are pleading with them to go back and remedy this,” he said.
Umahi who commended Delta state Governor Oborevwori for the work he is doing by building three flyovers at the same time said he appealed to him to add ten kilometres with reinforced concrete and he accepted.
On the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Umahi acknowledged the large investment but compared it to similar-scale projects in the North.
“You get to Kebbi; we have 258 kilometres of one carriageway procured for about N958bn. Sokoto is 120 kilometres at N454bn,” he concluded.
