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Mantu fingered in N3bn inflated contract
•It’s a lie-Deputy Senate President
NDIDI OKAFOR,
Abuja
DEPUTY
Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, was yesterday accused of complicity in a
N3 billion dam project in Plateau State.
He was specifically accused by his people
of taking active part in inflating the project from N1 billion to N3 billion.
But reacting swiftly to this, Alhaji Mantu
denied the allegations, describing his accusers as "mischief-makers."
Addressing a press conference in Abuja,
representatives of Mwagharul committee of Mangu local government area of the
state led by Capt. J.M. Dim (rtd), further alleged that Mantu used his position
to influence the location of the dam from Dan Hausa to Langai, "Mantu’s
village".
Capt Din claimed that the alleged
inflation of the contract was through the Ministry of Water Resources.
Din said three dams were originally in the
offing for the communities that make up the Mangu local government area given
the studies conducted by Messrs Damtech Nigeria Limited said to be experienced
in the area.
However, Capt Din alleged that "the three
integrated dams to serve these communities were deliberately scaled down to one,
to be sited at Langai, Senator Mantu’s village.
"The project had been revised downwards to
one dam, the average cost of one has been revised upwards from N1.1 billion for
three dams to N3.6 billion for one dam," he alleged.
Lamenting that the contract was awarded to
a non-deserving contractor as Damtech was allegedly ousted by Mantu.
Din alleged that the contractor who
eventually got the job, had since abandoned it having collected N936 million.
He called on President Olusegun Obasanjo,
who is due to visit Plateau State this week and had been slated to perform the
foundation laying ceremony of the dam not to endorse what he called "grotesque
travesty and monumental fraud which was organised and perpetrated by Senator
Mantu against our peace-loving people."
He also appealed to President Obasanjo to
use his "good offices to prevail on the relevant authorities to revert the dam
to its original compromise site agree to by the Pyem (Mantu’s ethnic group), and
Mwaghavill communities at Dan Hausa."
Din said a formal petition against Senator
Mantu had already been forwarded to President Obasanjo.
However, Senator Mantu denied allegation
of complicity in the N3 billion contract, saying he knew nothing about its
siting.
Senator Mantu in Abuja said he knew
nothing about the dam.
Speaking in Abuja, Mantu said "siting of a
dam is a scientific matter rather than a political issue."
He said contrary to Capt Din’s claim that
he hailed from Langai, he is an indigene of Clanso.
"I am from Clanso, not Langai. They are mischief makers".
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