The Federal Government today terminated the concession of the
Lagos-Ibadan expressway, which was granted to Bi-Courtney Consortium on
May 8, 2009, and handed the job to Julius Berger Plc and R.C.C Nigeria
Limited.
The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, disclosed this in an interview with State House Correspondents in Abuja.
The government said the action was taken because of the failure of
Bi-Courtney, which is owned by billionaire Wale Babalakin, to fulfill
agreements reached with it on the project.
The minister said, “Due to the senseless carnages on this important
expressway which is part of Arterial Route A1, the Federal Government
has also decided to embark on the emergency reconstruction of the
expressway.”
He said that his Ministry had engaged Julius Berger Plc and R.C.C
Nigeria Limited to commence work immediately on the reconstruction of
the expressway.
Julius Berger will handle Section 1, which is from Lagos to the Shagamu
interchange, while RCC Nigeria Limited will be responsible for Section
II, from Shagamu to Ibadan.
“The federal Government wishes to assure that while it will continue
to uphold the sanctity of contracts entered into by the federal
government, it will not shy away from implementing provisions of the
contract agreement dealing with non-performance on the part of the
contracting party.”
According to the Minister, the legal implications of terminating the
contract have been carefully considered by the Federal Ministry of Works
and the Federal Government.
Mr. Onolememen said: “If you recall we have been on this issue for
quite sometime now and we have meticulously followed the concession
agreement, the provision of relevant clauses of the agreement. We have
complied fully with the provisions of this agreement. We have had cause
even in the past to write the concessioneer to detail the breaches which
it had committed in this agreement in this particular transaction and
we have also followed the minimum and maximum number of days the
contractor was expected to remedy the situation but failing which the
Federal Government had no alternative but to take this course of
action".
He noted out that Bi-Courteny was supposed finish the job in four
years, which will come to a close in about six months’ time, with
nothing on the ground to suggest that it is capable of fulfilling the
objective.
On whether it was a mistake giving the concession to Bi-Courteny in
the first place, he said, "I would not want to say that it was a
mistake, because though I was not [the Minister] at that time, perhaps
at that time they had the most responsible bids, the details best known
to the then Minister of Works and his team that handled the project.
“But again it is not out of place to give Nigerian companies
opportunities to handle projects of this nature. This is our country,
whoever has the ability and the capacity to do projects of this nature
we believe should be encouraged".
On the percentage of work done on the road so far, he said: "I will
leave that for those who use the road. As far as we are concerned the
terms of work have not been complied with".
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