Nasarawa State House of Assembly has expressed dissatisfaction with the way contractor handling Akwanaga Local Government Area of the State did a shoddy works after collected huge amount of money from the State government.
The Assembly also directed Governor Abdullahi Sule to stop further payment to contractor handling 13.45km Rinze-Ngare- Ancho Baba- Andaha road in Akwanga LGA over poor execution of work for the interest of the people of the State.
Hon Mohammed Okpoku, the Chairman House Committee on NASIEC, Multilateral, Cooperation and Community Development gave the directive while inspecting the 13.45km Rinze-Ngare-Ancho Baba-Andaha road in Akwanga LGA and 16.9km Kofar-Gwari- Bakin Ayini-Amba road in Kokona Local Government Area of the State.
Okpoku who led other members of the committee for inspection of the roads said that the 85 per cent of money recieved by the contractor out of the N209.3m contract sum does not tally with the work done so far.
” To be sincere, we are not happy with the work done by the contractor handling 13.45km Rinze-Ngare- Ancho Baba- Andaha road.
” The contractor said he received 85 per cent of the total contract sum, that means it renaming only 15 per cent payment , the work done did not tally or match with the money received by the contractor.
” It is in view of this that we are calling on the state government to henceforth stop giving the contractor his remaining balance untill he do the needful,” he said.
He called for the overhauling of Ngare- Ancho bridge for the purpose of saving the lives of people and boosting their socio-economic activities.
Okpoku said that the committee was out to ensure that the projects were done according to specifications for the overall development of the State.
” We are out to ensure that quality works are done in order to justify the state government huge investment in rural development.
” And we want to ensure that no contractor short-changed the government ,” he added.
He said that the construction of the roads would not only boost the socio-economic activities of the people but would also improve on the revenue base as well as improve on the standard of living of the people.
” As this will create job opportunities and discourages rural- urban migration in the state,” he stressed.
The chairman, commended the contractor handling 16.9km Kofar Gwari- Bakin Ayini- Amba road for good job done and urged him to maintain the standard while the work last.
Okpoku assured of the committee’s readiness to ensure that all the ongoing construction of rural roads are done according to specifications.
He also urged the Bureau for Rural Development to intensify efforts in supervising contractors to ensure that good jobs are delivered.
He commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule for the construction of roads among other projects across the State.
Also speaking, Engr. Timothy Katsa, Director of Engineering, Nsarawa State Bureau for Rural Development said that the 13.45km Rinze- Ngare- Ancho Baba- Andaha road was awarded at the cost of N209.
3million for the duration of 3 months.
The director commended Gov. Sule for embarking on rural road construction towards improving on the standard of living of the people.
Earlier, Engr. Andrew Simon, the contractor, Sergio Construction Company Limited, handling the construction of 13.45km Rinze-Ngare-Acho Baba-Andaha road said that the company has received 85 per cent of the total contract sum of N209.3 million.
” We have recieved N85 per cent of the total contract sum, remaining 15 per cent and I want to assure of quality works, ” he said.
The contractor also assured that the work will be done according to all specifications.
On his part, Engr. Samuel Adeleke, the contractor, Forest Engineering Company Ltd handling the construction of
16.9km Kofar-Gwari- Bakin Ayini-Amba road in Kokona Local Government Area said that the work is at 70 per cent completion.
” We have received N180 million of the total contract sum of N240million for the road construction,” he said
The contractor assured of doing quality work.
