The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Works, has threatened to revoke a section of the Abuja-Kaduna highway contract being handled by Julius Berger.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, said this during a visit to inaugurate the rehabilitation of the highway at the Zuba area of the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday in Abuja.
The PUNCH reports that the contract was awarded to Julius Berger in 2018 when former President Muhammadu Buhari was in power.
While the Kaduna-Zaria section has been completed and the Zaria-Kano section is almost done, the Abuja-Kaduna section has recorded 27 per cent progress in 6 years.
Speaking during the event, Umahi accused Julius Berger of playing politics with the highway to make the current administration look bad.
He said the company was seeking N1.5trn for the project, but it was reviewed to N740bn by the Federal Executive Council.
He said, “Berger said to do this entire job, it needs N1.5tn; we started negotiation in September last year, writing letters every week. Eventually, we told them that despite the ones they were requesting, it would still take them four years to complete as there have been traffic jams and kidnappings on the road. We presented the option of balancing the road into three, which the President approved. When we did that, Berger accepted it and the rate.
“But we did not know they were playing games by continuing to play delay tactics, and at that time, their side was N710bn both completed and those to be done. Later, they came back that they wanted an increase to N740bn. We went to FEC, and they approved it only last week, saying they needed another increase to N903bn.
“Even if we accept it, other contractors will want the same, and it will increase the project to about N4bn per kilometre, which is on asphalt.
“Our position is that we are not increasing this contract for Julius Berger beyond N740bn, and this game must be over. If they are not doing it, we will terminate the job and we will get people to do it with the same quality of coastal. If they can leave the job, we will do it on concrete.
“They have put the project into politics, so they are using it to de-market our administration, and we say enough is enough.”
He stated that the road, which is 375km dualised (750km), will see the addition of 7.5 kilometres in Kogi and Kano States.
Speaking earlier, the ministry‘s Director of Highway Construction, Engr. Umar Bakare said the project was de-scope and rewarded the outstanding sections of the project to two other persons of Dangote and BUA in addition to Julius Berger.
He said the length of the road to be constructed by Dangote is 38 kilometres dual within section one and will cost N145bn with a 14-month completion date.
Under the new contract, Dangote Group and BUA have been enlisted to construct some sections of concrete pavement.
Similarly, the project, which was formerly funded by the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, will now be paid for through the Tax Credit Scheme.
