The Nigerian Ministry of Works has terminated its contract with Levant Construction Ltd for failure of the company to keep the contractual agreement.
The contract is for the reconstruction of Benin-Sapele-Warri Road (Section 1: Benin – Imasabor), being executed under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
In a Press statement, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, while expressing displeasure at Levant’s failure to meet up to the contractual agreement, said the section of the same road being handled by the Edo State government is progressing smoothly.
“We have three sections there. We have the Levant section. Unfortunately, Levant has not lived up to expectations. We even had to intervene and beg the Governor of Edo State to please get the worst sections of that route done. We divided the worst sections into two and told Levant to concentrate on one part. While the Governor of Edo State intervened, which I think is about 23 kilometers for N35 billion, and that section the Governor of Edo State intervened in is ongoing very well, Levant has since left the site. We gave them a series of warning letters. We also gave them the last termination notice. When a termination notice is given to you, it is for you within 14 days to go back to the site and begin to do those things you were not doing. This time is for them to remobilize to the site and for them to work, but they did not respond.”
The Works Minister directed the Permanent Secretary to ensure that the job is properly terminated, write Levant a letter for a joint measurement, and also to write their bank to request repayment of the APG, failing which the matter would be taken to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Also reacting to some statements by some youths who alleged that the Tinubu-led government is doing more projects in the South than in the North, Mr. Umahi debunked such impressions as false and misleading explaining that the government has been inclusive in the implementation of road and bridge projects across the six geo-Political zones, both in the execution of the inherited ongoing road projects and in the distribution of the Renewed Hope Road Legacy Projects.
“In this ministry, we don’t count where anybody came from. We don’t count where projects are cited. We are using the example of Mr. President, who came on board. He took all the inherited projects of the ministry and continued to work with them. He didn’t want to know the lopsidedness of the projects. For example, this Tax Credit of NNPC is only 5% in South West and 4% in South East, Niger State has 26% alone. So, he didn’t want to care about where these inherited projects are. He had to, as a very unique leader, take over the entire thing, and he’s going on with them. And so, we should stop looking at a project as it’s coming from the North, it’s coming from the South, because the Southern people use the roads of the North, and the Northern people use the roads of the South. So, we should see ourselves as one people, one country, this is very important” Umahi added.