By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The Minister of Work, Engineer Dave Umahi has ordered the ministry’s supervising engineers to give a warning letter to the contractors handling the federal roads on Monday and that, after 14 days, should they fail to do the right thing, their contracts should be revoked.
He gave the warning while inspecting some federal government road projects in Edo state.
Engr. Umahi particularly expressed sadness in the multi-billion naira Benin/Sapele-Ologbo reconstruction work, handled by the Levant Construction Company, saying that, they are not comply strictly to the scope and specification of the job.
“By Monday, give them a warning letter to start permanent work and if Monday, they didn’t start, give 14 days’ notice of termination.
“We paid multi-billion for this job and we have seen that a lot of contractors in this country are just playing politics with us and we have emphasized on this severally.
“We will pay mobilization fee to a contractor, we will never pay variation on price (VOP) for that amount.
“We have paid and that is the problem with Levant and after 14 days of notice of termination, I will come and terminate the job myself.
“You cannot do this kind of job in your country.
“It can only happen in Africa. You can’t collect our money and be misbehaving like this.
“It is a big shame. look at how people are suffering everywhere and we should be happy clapping for you?
“I have had more than 10 meetings with them on this Job. If anything goes wrong, they will be calling the President.” Umahi said.
Umahi, after inspecting the Benin –Ologbo axis, regretted that contractors in the country are playing politics with Nigerians and warned that he would not tolerate such under his watch.