The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has emphasized that the contractor handling the reawarded Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road project early revoked from Julius Berger was competent to deliver contrary to reports.
Umahi who stated this at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday frowned at report that the project was awarded to an “inactive” company adding that portions of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road delivered by Julius Berger was failing.
He said the company for the job was ‘Infiouest International Nigeria Limited’ and not InfoQuest Nigeria Limited as reported by a National Daily.
He said Julius Berger had on Monday published misleading information following termination of the contract on
Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road.
He explained that the project was terminated after 14 months and over 20 meetings between Julius Berger and the Ministry Of Works without resolution on the timeline and fair price on the projects.
He accused Julius Berger PLC of inciting Nigerians against the federal government with it’s rhetorics on road projects.
The Minister disclosed that Julius Berger lacked the necessary equipment to execute jobs awarded to them.
“Berger is living in past glory, they just say that they have finished the project 65%, that’s 750 kilometers. I don’t want to tangle with them on that. But if you have finished the project 65% and what was satisfied and paid was 391 billion with no debt to you, why are you asking for additional 1.1 trillion to finish the remaining 35%? That is what it means.
“You finish 65% and then you are asking for 1.1 trillion as a review, not additional work, no additional work to this thing. And let me say that we are engineers, fellows of the Society of Engineers. We did not read our own engineering from the backyard.
“We went to better schools than some of these people that are claiming that they are engineers. The Abuja Kano, and I want anybody to look at it, is failing. This 65% is failing. Go and look at it and you see that there are patches already on the project. And so nobody should come to teach us engineering. We understand engineering very well”, he queried.
Speaking on the Bodo Bonny road project currently handled by Julius Berger, he said the contractor reneged on agreements demanding additional 80 billion to complete the job this year in September.
“And let me state that there is no place that Berger is working for Minister of Works that they have agreed on a dialogue, or give and take. And I’ll give you the example in the Bodo Bonny road. The project was reviewed.
“I can’t know the exact price that the past administration reviewed, but we made a contract of 199 billion with an agreement that the project will not be reviewed again but September, Berger now reneged on that agreement and insisted the project should be reviewed. And they insisted that the project must add another 80 billion.
“We went through all the negotiation, appeals, even we had to go to Villa before the Honorable Attorney General, before the National Security Adviser, before the Chief of Staff to the President. We had meetings with them three times over this particular project”, Umahi disclosed.
