President Bola Tinubu has approved urgent rehabilitation of the 18-kilometer Nyanya, Karu, Orozo in Abuja Municipal Area Country (AMAC) of the nation’s capital, Abuja.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, disclosed this to newsmen during the flag-off of the road and inspection of ongoing work on Apo-Karshi road.
Wike stated that the rehabilitation will last for eight months since the project is very important to the government.
He said: “What attracted me to that road, if you remember, when we came to this Karshi-Apo road last time, we took that for dinner and I saw how bad the road was and I said No! This is not acceptable to us.
“We wrote to Mr. President and he has approved that there should be immediate rehabilitation of that road. We are doing it under emergency and so we had to contact the contractor to see how they can rehabilitate that road. It is an 18-kilometre road.
“There would be streetlights and they have given us eight months to be able to complete that project. That road is very important, look at so many government agencies along the road.
“So if that road is finished and it’s being rehabilitated, then this Karshi-Apo road is also completed, we are free to go. So that is why we are doing a President order that there must be emergency rehabilitation of that particular road.”
On Apo-Karshi road, the Minister who doubted the capability of the contractor handling the project to deliver, however, declined the request to cancel the contract.
He said: “The last time we came, we believed that each of the contractors have moved back into sight.
“Obviously, we thought that within seven months, they ought to have completed, but unfortunately, the contractors were not able to move to site because of some procurement processes. But thank God we have passed that stage and they have also been mobilized to move to site.
“I still have my doubts. I will not lie to you. I still have my doubts, but they are still insisting that by April they would have completed this project. It is a project that is very dear to us. We know the importance of this road, so many people are eager to see that this project is completed on time, so that it will ease off alot of traffic and then so, it will boost the economic of this area.
“Let us give them the beneficial doubts. I believe that they will play their own part by doing what they are supposed to do, the funds are there to be given to them, and we believe that if they put more efforts, if I come here again and see that they have improved on what we have seen today, I will tell the treasury department to release further funds to them. But for now, let’s watch them. But we are very serious with this project.
“So many people don’t understand that when you cancel project, they’re a lot of implications for it, and so we don’t want that. There are financial implications, there are legal implications, and so many things.
“So what we are saying is that we would continue to encourage the contractor, to see that he’s finished this project on time because we are ready and we will not have any problems from our own side. That’s why for time to time, I will come here, to see that this project is completed on time.”
READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
