Minister battles power contractor

The Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Shehuri, has summoned the contractor handling Mararaba Mubi-Michika-Madagali road, Rhas Nigeria Limited, for abandoning the project.

Mr Shehuri summoned the constructor on Saturday in Yola during an inspection of some federal government road projects in Adamawa.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the abandonment of the project by the contractor after collecting mobilisation.

“Going by the level of work here and from what I have seen, I am not impressed with the performance of the contractor.

“With what I am seeing on this site, I think there is need for us to sit down with the contractor because government cannot tolerate this.

“I am, therefore, inviting the Managing Director of the company to appear in Abuja because it is disturbing for the lifespan of the project to elapse and work done is only 1.7 per cent.

“This is a very important project because the direct beneficiaries have been under attack of Boko Haram, and since peace had been restored, there should be free movement of people,” he said.

The minister expressed dissatisfaction over the claim by the contractor that the project was delayed because of nonavailability of working drawings.

According to him, he was surprised to hear that designing a bridge will take one year in the ministry where we have several engineers.

Abubakar Salihu, the Federal Controller of Works, Adamawa State, said the 90 kilometres road and bridge projects were awarded in 2017.

He said that the bridges were collapsed by Boko Haram insurgents in 2016.

Mr Salihu said that the project commenced in 2017 with a completion period of 18 months, which had elapsed 115 per cent completion period.

He said that the project was currently 1.7 per cent completed.