- The Minister of Works Dave Umahi had threatened to revoke the contract if the contractors failed to return to site
The House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee established to oversee the progress and implementation of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road project has expressed concern about the state of the road’s Kaduna-Abuja axis, which has been caused by the slow pace of work by the project’s contractors.
The Committee, chaired by Hon Aminu Sani Jaji, expressed concerns during an oversight visit to inspect the Abuja-Kaduna Highway over the weekend.
However, the Committee assured that it would work to ensure that construction began on the road and that it was ready for public use as soon as possible.
Earlier, the Minister of Works Dave Umahi had threatened to revoke the contract if the contractors failed to return to site within seven days and continue with the project expeditiously.
He was unhappy that the road witnessed a slow completion rate since it was awarded six years ago in 2018.
Speaking during the oversight, Hon Jaji promised that the committee would intervene in the matter and ensure was amicably resolved so that work could begin immediately.
He said, “So we’ll do our best to ensure that all things have been done in accordance with the contractual agreement and other applications that’s supposed to be done with the National Assembly, more especially this particular committee.
“You see, since there is intervention from the National Assembly, I think both the contractors and the Minister, they need to hold onto their position so that the necessary thing must be done in accordance with the contractual agreement.
“So for us, we don’t know that condition yet, until we get it formally and we have requested all necessary information from the Ministry and as well as we are going to write to all relevant agencies, including those that are responsible for this palliative exercise that is taking place on this Abuja-Kaduna road.
“So we’ll do our best to ensure that whoever needs to be addressed will be addressed in due course.”
He appealed to the road users to be patient as efforts would be in top gear to ensure the road ” is in good condition for use as soon as possible.”
According to him, “After the demand given to this ad hoc committee, we decided to embark on an assessment tour today. We have seen a lot, and that is why we said that we cannot do anything rather than coming to see for ourselves.
“Seeing for ourselves will give us a headway on what to do and in fact, we’ve assessed the nature of the work and then the problem.
“What everybody can see today is that the work has been awarded for almost six years also. And then the way and manner the contractors are doing the work is too slow.