…says Julius Berger living in past glory
David Umahi, Nigeria’s minister of works has refuted a recent report of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway contract being awarded to an inactive company, clarifying that the contract was awarded to Infiouest international limited and not Infoquest Nigeria Limited as quoted in the report.
The Federal government in November 2024 had announced tbe termination of the N740 billion Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road rehabilitation Contract which was offered to Julius Berger plc, due to disagreement on price and completion deadline.
Umahi who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday said, “Daily Trust said that Ministry of Works awarded Abuja-Kaduna-Kano to an obscured company and Berger said they were not invited to bid. Don’t forget that we have two lots on Abuja-kano so that we can finish in 14 months. The first one has gone to BPP, the second one is under procurement. In each of these lots, we duly and in writing invited Berger among five other companies to bid and that is for fairness because if you say your price is better than our price, then you should go to the umpire, which is the BPP and whatever BPP says, it stands.
“My fear is that Julius Berger is living on past glory, they do not have equipment and I will prove it with facts. I want the press to understand what Daily Trust was talking about is InfoQuest. Somebody went and registered a company called InfoQuest. The company that we recommended for the job is Infiouest. There is this O and Q, so everything is internationally limited. We didn’t give our job to InfoQuest, it is Infiouest.
“So the Daily Trust owes Ministry of Works very deep apology because we didn’t give job to the company they said we gave job. It amounts to demarketing the ministry, it amounts to inciting the public against the Ministry of Works, it amounts to creating doubt in the mind of our boss, Mr. President. So they owe us that serious public apology in at least five newspapers.
“And they say that this company we gave job, that they don’t have equipment, funny enough, I have document to show you that most of the equipment that Julius Berger is using on Abuja-Kano project site, they are hired equipment from this company that we gave the job. We have the documents to show you the agreement written. So instead of looking for the egg, we should better look for the chicken.”
He explained that any contract that is not executed in line with the policy of the federal government, the law, the policy of the ministry of works will be terminated.
He disclosed plans of the ministry to invoke a clause in the contract agreement to ensure that contractors do not delay completion of projects unduly even with availability of funds.
“There is 1 percent penalty to be deducted from your payments as a kind of measure to ensure that you don’t use delayed tactics. But it’s something that has been done over and over and over and over. But today, the minister is an engineer, the PAM Secretary is an engineer so there’s no place to hide.
“So we want the public to know we are facing a lot of backlash, and I want the public to know that our hands are very clean. And those who are demarketing us, we have not collected kobo from anybody. We are insisting that the taxpayers’ money should have value,” he added.
Umahi, while inspecting the project last week had assured that the road would be completed in time, ensuring that it meets the nation’s urgent infrastructural need. He noted that the project has been broken into three segments, aimed at guaranteeing quality and timely completion.
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