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Ogunlewe
criticises contractor handling Onitsha-Owerri road
By Oguwike
Nwachuku
Group NewsEditor and
Shola
Ogunode
AviationReporter
Works Minister, Chief Adeseye
Ogunlewe has expressed disappointment at the slow pace of repairs on
Onitsha-Owerri road.
He told journalists at the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, at the weekend that,
�despite the fact that we gave the contractor N6 billion to carry out repairs
on the roads, he has not performed to our expectation. He is always claiming
that the rain is disturbing�.
He added: �It is a confused
thing because am not very happy with the work recorded so far.�
He said he could not
terminate the contract because, �we would lose the N6 billion already paid.
More so, the procedure could take several years as the contractor may go to
court. Even if we get to terminate it, how do we retrieve the already paid
money?
He added that, �since the
contract is valued at N37billion, we would be unfair to withdraw the contract
from the expatriate since only N6 billion has been paid and also since the
temptation might be there for him to abscond�.
Ogunlewe said the Lagos State
Fourth Mainland Bridge proposed by Governor Bola Tinubu is a big fraud,
explaining that the government lacks the financial muscle to embark on such a
project.
He said though he is in
support of the project, nothing on the ground suggested that the proposed
bridge would ever take off. �I am in support of another bridge including the
Fourth Mainland Bridge, but it is a fraud. It does not take you years to know
who is designing the bridge.
�Who are the consultants? Who
are the contractors? We don�t get to hear of any advertisement for consultants
to bid, which means there is no due process at all.
�Tinubu is financially
incapable of building a fourth mainland bridge and it is obvious that no study
has been done on the project,� the minister explained.
Speaking on the new councils
in Lagos State, which has generated a lot of controversy, Ogunlewe said he
warned Tinubu on the danger in scrapping the existing 20 councils and renaming
them, noting that today, �no local government in Lagos is existing because
their names were abolished.� �He was told to get his lawmakers to make a law to
change the situation, but as usual, he would not listen. I think he can still do
the right thing by retaining the names of the old councils, �Ogunlewe said,
adding, �I am in support of even the creation of more councils so long as it is
done rightly.�
The minister also threw more
light on the operation of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the
Lagos State Traffic Maintenance Agency (LASTMA), noting that neither of the
agencies are expected to be on the road, because they have not got the training
to do so.
Explaining
that FERMA officials are road maintenance agents and not traffic wardens,
Ogunlewe said that he has concluded plans to meet with the Corps Marshal of
Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to enlist his support in extending some
training to the officials.
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