The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, in Nigeria says most contractors that bid for cleaning contract were frustrating sanitation exercise in the Federal Capital City, FCC.
The Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Dr Abubakar Hassan stated this while answering questions from Journalists in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.
The Director said some cleaning contract awards are not being completed because of frequent petitions from the contractors, which is occasioned by the contractors’ desperation.
Hassan who spoke at the instance of some media reports that the Abuja Environmental Protection Board abandoned cleaning of the city, said the board has the duty to only clean areas that have been concesioned.
According to him, “Guzape extension or Asokoro extension is not part of concession areas, there are areas that are concession that are being given out as contract, places like Jahi you can see waste dump because is not concession, we need to have extra fund to clean the area, Lugbe car wash on Air Port road is not concession, Garki village too is not concession”
The Director stated that, “is not every where in FCT that is concessioned for cleaning, what we do is to put in extra efforts, we have constituted an intervention team. We deploy 20 tippers, they go four or five trips in a day. It causes AEPB nothing less than N1.5 million for just a week and in one place.
He added that, “In Nyanya, you will see another dump waste which comes from Nasarawa state, no one will Carry waste from Centra area to go and dump in Nyanya. That waste is coming from Nasarawa state, one funny parts of it is that we are only to clean 10 metres from the express. Now, if you look at Nyanya and Karu they have about two hundred metres away from the road but they bring their waste to the road.
“The contractor has ran away, but we go there every week to clean because is our responsibility, no matter how we evacuate the waste they still come back. There is no week that we don’t remove 20 tippers of waste from Mopol Junction, Nyanya and Garki village, if you go to Jahi, last weekend we remove nothing less than 500 hundred trips of waste, the place is not concession”
On the satellite towns, Hassan revealed that it is under the watch of Area Councils and not AEPB, “AEPB cleans Federal Capital City only not outside, again, we clean five metres away from the express road”
While explaining the process of contract award, he stated ” I am not the director of Procurement, the award of contract is taking unnecessary longer time. Let us follow due process, award contract and give the contractors award letters so that AEPB will process their payment. Let them get the award letter and accept the award so that we can go on other process, but as it is now, none of them have award letter”
