Sen. Abbo alleges shoddy job after contractors collect N2.2bn to repair bridges destroyed by B’Haram

The senator representing the Adamawa Northern senatorial district, Ishaku Abbo, at the weekend called on the Federal Government to revoke the contract awarded for the repair of Kudzum, Dilichim and Shuwa bridges in Michika and Madagali areas of Adamawa State.

The bridges were destroyed by the Boko Haram terrorists in 2014 but currently undergoing repair works.

The senator, who frowned at the shoddy work on the bridges by the contractors handling the projects, said the Federal Government should stop the work and revoke the contract award.

The senator spoke when he led officials from the Ministry of Works and Housing in charge of the North-East to the sites of one of the projects.

He said “Let me lay the background to this project, this work was awarded in 2017 and as we are all witnesses today, no appreciable progress has been made in the implementation, and let me say this specifically, this is not a personal project, it is a Federal Government project for work on roads that connect a larger part of the northeast, the northern part of Adamawa, Maiduguri and linking up to Cameroun.

“After about three years, nothing has been done. This road has been trailed with a lot of petitions demanding for the revocation of the contract and awarded to another contractor and specifically to the army engineering corps.

“The ministry of works swung into action giving the contractor a fourteen-day notice of revocation of the contract according to the law and the contractor replied asking for mercies and told the federal government to give them three months to justify their competence.

“As a result of which they came up with this time table of some specific plan of action on the three bridges at Kurzum, Dilchin and Wurongayandi on what they intended to deliver by 31st December 2019.”

Abbo, however, acknowledged little progress, saying he had “seen the level of work today and compared to how it was in August, there has been some progress but a slow one”.

He added, “If they are to meet their target, they would have to hire more staff and more equipment because, after these three months of grace, we will not agree to any extension because enough is enough.

“Our people have suffered enough and it is not okay that after collecting N2.2 billion from the Federal Government that this is the only work they did.

“We are not a sadist and we derive no joy from revoking anyone’s contract but I will personally sponsor a motion to revoke this contract if they fail to deliver as promised.”

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The site engineer, Ghais Saddimme, in a response, explained that “We are here and we have all the necessary facilities to deliver on the job. By the end of December, the senator and the ministry of works will be happy with our level of performance.

“We had challenges but that is now behind us. It took the federal government two years to make the advance payment for the work and fourteen months to approve the working drawings to start work on the bridges and we did not have the approval to start works on the roads and as a contractor, I follow instructions.

“From the arrangements we had, what is left now is work, unfortunately, we could not make much progress because of the rains. The raining season has been challenging, even now there is still some water level but very soon we will resume work and do exactly and as we agreed.”

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