On Thursday, an ad hoc committee from the House of Representatives visited the construction site of the Ijebu-Igbo Ibadan Road in order to look into the rumors of a slowdown in the project and the new information that the contract value had been inflated from N9.8 billion to N54 billion.
Hon. Kwamoti Bitrus Laori, chairman of an ad hoc committee, escorted the legislators to the construction site to evaluate it.
Remember that on September 7th, 2023, a House of Representatives probe panel heard allegations that a representative for the Oluyole Federal Constituency in Oyo State, Hon. Tolulope Akande Sadipe, had colluded with some officials of the Federal Ministry of Works to increase the contract sum for a construction project that was already underway from N9.8 billion to N54 billion.
DC Engineering Ltd., the company in charge of the project, claims that the officials at the Ministry of Works ignored its request for an upward review of the project to at least N14 billion and instead re-awarded the contract to another company, Areatech Construction Ltd., for N54 billion.
The Honorable Sadipe refuted the claim. However, Engr. Adedamola Kuti, Director of Highways for the South West Region of the Federal Ministry of Works, informed the committee that DC Engineering Ltd’s contract had been cancelled as of September 2022 and that it had been re-awarded to two other firms. Kuti, however, did not explain why the N9.8 billion road contract was increased to N54. billion.
Many stakeholders blamed the Federal Ministry of Works’ delay in paying DC Engineering Ltd. 15% mobilization fees of N1.3 billion from 2018 to 2023, as was revealed during the hearing, on the fact that the project had been awarded in 2018 and was expected to be completed in 2020.
Since the original contractor is still working at the site, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) revoked the Certificate of No Objection it had issued to Areatech Construction Ltd. The rationale behind BPP’s decision was that the original contract must be terminated before any project may be awarded to a different company.
On the other hand, BPP informed the Solicitor of DC Engineering Ltd in a letter dated May 10, 2023 that the certificate of no objection provided to Areatech Construction Ltd had been revoked.
The committee chairman, kwamoti Bitrus Laori, reassured the community leaders/members and officials of the DC Engineering Ltd during the lawmakers’ Thursday visit to the Ijebu-Igbo Ibadan Road project site, Oyo State, that they were on the tour of the project site for an assessment and to ensure everything is settled amicably toward the completion of the project.
During their inspection, the MPs saw all of the locations that the 41-kilometer road work touched. To name just a few: Iyana Shehu, Ile-Epo Lucas Station, Ile-Epo Inukan, Olunde Junction, Fatusi bridge, Arogo, Aiyegun Market, Lanfa Bridge, and the like.
The legislators were joined on their site tour by DC Engineering Ltd senior staff, including Head of Logistics Mr. Emmanuel, Site/Project Engineer Engr Isaac, and numerous other professionals.
All throughout the places we went, we saw DC Engineering’s road construction equipment.
During Thursday’s legislative visit, Hon. Asuwaju Folawuyo Bello (Commissioner Oyo State) represented the Public Complaint Commission.
In a hearing before the probe panel on September 7, 2023, Bello placed the blame for the state of the roads in Nigeria on the actions of personnel from the Ministry of Works.
Several complaints have been received about the project, according to Bello, who is surprised that it will take the Federal Ministry of Works five years to pay only 15% of the contract value.
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