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The minister of Works, David Umahi, has asked the concessionaire handling the Benin-Asaba road to write to the Nigerian government to enable the termination of its contract over what he described as poor performance.
Umahi made the demand on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ engagement on the state of the road at the Edo State Government House in Benin City.
The minister also directed the concessionaire to immediately remove all blockages on the road to restore the free flow of traffic and ease the hardship faced by motorists.
“We are therefore pleading with you to give us written approval to proceed in this manner. We believe this is the way forward,” Umahi said.
He directed that the concessionaire should be removed from the project site within the limits of the government’s contractual rights.
“You have added no value to the project,” he said.
Umahi further instructed the Ministry of Works to ask the project’s independent engineer to measure all work carried out on the road, excluding what he described as “negative work”.
According to him, removing asphalt contrary to the contract and specifications would not be recognised as part of the value of work completed.
“When you remove asphalt contrary to the contract and contrary to the specifications, that is negative work,” he said.
The minister added that the cost of repairing damage caused by such activities should also be determined.
Umahi said the government was not convinced that the concessionaire currently had the capacity to restore the road to an acceptable standard.
Credit: Channels
He warned that continued work in its current form could worsen the situation and create the potential for public disorder in the affected area.
The minister directed that damaged sections of the road be reconstructed under the supervision of the independent engineer.
He also ordered the concessionaire to provide a technical design for proper stormwater canalisation, stressing the need to prevent water from being channelled onto the carriageway.
Umahi further directed that all removed asphalt should be restored and measures taken to redirect water away from the road and restore free traffic flow.
Concessionaire seeks more time
Responding to the minister’s demands, the Head of Legal and Compliance of the Benin-Asaba Expressway Concession Company, Peterson Fabian, appealed to the government and other stakeholders to allow the company more time to explore possible solutions.
Fabian said the discussions at the meeting were not yet conclusive and called for further engagement among the parties.
“Every stakeholder here, do allow us to have more time to engage. I believe that we will have more pathways forward to further collaborate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Allwell Onyesoh, a member of the Senate Committee on Works, described the condition of the road as terrible for commuters and other road users.
He questioned the capacity of the concessionaire to handle a project of such magnitude and said the situation should serve as a lesson for future road concessions in Nigeria.
Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, also expressed disappointment over the state of the road, saying motorists, particularly residents of Edo State, had suffered significantly.
Okpebholo said that after about 16 months, the level of work on the road was unacceptable.
“What we are seeing now is not what I should be seeing at this point after 16 months. Nothing has been done. To me, it is a total waste of resources,” he said.
The governor urged Umahi to take decisive action to resolve the problem, stressing that the Benin-Asaba road is a major route whose condition affects people beyond Edo State.
