The construction of section 1 of the Kano-Maiduguri road which was awarded to Dantata & Sowoe Limited had been terminated, as the federal government through the Ministry of Works announced the effluxion of time.
David Umahi, the minister of works disclosed this while reviewing the work done so far under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme. The minister who met with representatives of Dangote Group of Companies Plc, BUA Group of Companies Plc and Mainstream Energy Solutions Ltd decried the continued delay of the projects by contractors.
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He said, “So my position as the Minister of Works is that everybody must take responsibility. We will no longer fold our hands and allow the projects we have awarded and even reviewed to continue to linger. Nigerians are suffering on these roads, and President Ahmed Bola Tinubu GCFR is doing everything possible, giving the road sector special attention. And so it will be a failure on our side for us to fold our hands and watch contractors linger on these roads without minding the sufferings of the people.
“So we call for patience, partnership, and patriotism. The President means well for this nation. We must play our part and this is very important. So to our contractors and every staff member of the Ministry of Works, and of course to myself, we all must sit up and play our part to support the divine vision of Mr President to retake our country.”
The Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme which was introduced in 2022, provides for public-private partnership intervention in the construction, refurbishment and maintenance of critical road infrastructure in the country with participants being entitled to Tax Credits against their future Companies’ Income Tax.
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He noted that some of the projects have suffered delays due to changes in prices as against previously agreed prices, adding all projects affected are being reviewed to get these contractors to increase their pace of work.
Projects affected and are being handled by the Dangote group include the 35 km Apapa-Owonronshoki Expressway in Lagos State, the 38 km section of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road dualization, the 49.577km Dikwa-Gamboru-Ngala road, Borno State, the construction of Nnamdi Azikiwe road (western bypass) in Kaduna State, the 49.153 km Bama – Banki road in Borno State.
Others include the reconstruction of 105km Obelle-Ilaro-Papalanto-Shagamu Road dualization, the reconstruction of 54.239km Deep Seaport in Lagos State, the 65.5 km Afikpo-Okigwe road in Ebonyi and Imo States being procured and the 53.7km of side lanes for the Lekki Deep Seaport in Lagos State being procured.
Projects being handled by BUA under the tax credit scheme include the 20 km of roads in each of the three sections of the Lokoja – Benin Highway, the 17.6km section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road( more than 3 km to be included at the Kano axis), the 132.5km Kano-Kongollam in Kano, Jigawa, and Kastina States.
Others include the 130km Bode Sadu – Kaiama road, 42km Eyenkorin-Offa road, the 73km Lafiaji-Bacita road and the 37km Okuta-Kenu road all in Kwara State.
For mainstream energy, the projects include the 76.586km Malando – Ngasike – Wara road in Kebbi State, the 45.13km Sabon Gari – Yuni – Auna Road In Magami LGA of Niger State and the asphalt overlay of Mokwa-Nasarawa road in Niger State.
Projects handled by MTN include the dualization of the 107km Enugu- Onitsha road. The Honourable Minister commended the good works completed on the ongoing projects by Dangote Plc, like the Apapa-Owonronshoki Expressway, the Lekki-Deep Seaport road and the construction of Nnamdi Azikiwe road (western bypass) in Kaduna State.
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Umahi speaking further, assured the Bauchi State Governor of intervention on the flood-damaged section of the Kano- Maiduguri federal road within Bauchi State that was cut off by a flood, directing the Ministry’s technical team to evaluate the damage done and provide an emergency solution to the problem to alleviate the attendant inconveniences faced by the road users, especially the people of Malori-Guskuri community in Katsgun Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
He said, “I’m directing the Director of Highway Rehabilitation to liaise with the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Works to immediately deploy some technical people to go and evaluate what we can do over there and it’s very unfortunate that when a job is completed by contractors, we don’t even enjoy the road for five years, and we are back to square one.
“That’s why I have been saying that this issue of a one-year liability period is not desirable because every badly executed job can last for one year, but it can not last for five years. So we are still going to request the contractor that did the job, Mothercart Ltd, to join that team and find out why the road had to cut into two as reported to us today, and that is section three of Kano-Maiduguri road.”
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