Contractors Handling 140 Units Of Ebonyi Housing Estate Were Moblized 50% Of Contract Sum- Commissioner

By Abah Joshua

The Ebonyi State Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Honourable Engineer Francis Ori, has disclosed that contractors handling handling the one hundred and forty (140) housing units by the Ebonyi State government for the displaced people of Amanze and Izzo autonomous communities in Ishielu local government area of the State were for the first time in the history of the State mobilized 50% of the contract sum.

Engineer Ori, who disclosed this in Abakaliki during a joint press briefing with the State Commissioner for Information, Honourable Jude Chikadibia Okpor, threatened court action against the contractors for not completing the project at due time .

According to him, the contract of the housing units was awarded on September 22nd 2023 which was expected to be completed by December last year, but regretted that the contractors had failed to honour the contractual agreement.

He said, “You will recall that on 22nd September, 2023, Ebonyi State government awarded contracts to various contractors for the construction of 140 units of three bedroom bungalows for Izzo and Amanze autonomous communities. These one hundred -forty bedrooms were shared evenly 70/ 70 per autonomous community.

“These contractors signed contract agreement with the ministry and mobilized 50%, first in the history and they commenced construction. Along the line, they started making some request from the ministry which we considered.

“We deemed it necessary to convey a meeting with the the contractors. We had a meeting with the contractors on the 22nd of January, 2024 when the contractors having stayed up to the required time at the site. They came complaining that they need a variation of the job and we said no, we paid you people 50% of the mobilisation upon that, you are expected to have completed the sub structural and super structural works.

“It was a very a long argument and after that day, I breifed my boss whom out of grace said we should give them up till April and the contractors were moblized back to site and if you have any certificate outstanding, you should indicate and some of the contrators applied and we paid them and they returned back to site. Little did we know that some of them did not complete the project.

“When we now convened another meeting of the contractors on June, the contractors started giving many excuses and we told them to go back to site and complete the job. Some of these contractors are still waiting to see what we will do up till few days ago when during the Ojiji festival, the Governor directed that any contractor who fails to finish his job on or before 25th of September shall be arrested and prosecuted according to the law of the contract agreement.

“Yesterday, I was at the site for inspection, I saw some of the contractors coming back to site and I do hope they are coming back to site to complete the work. Immediately the contract was awarded, the contractors signed contract agreement with the ministry. That agreement was drafted from the ministry of justice of Ebonyi State government.

“The contractors were given to go through it before signing of which they did. There is a very important section of the contractual agreement, ie, article 5 subsection ( g) that stated that contractors have no reason to stop that work except if certificate generated is delayed on payment and they have minimum of three months to stay in that site.

“These contractors have spent close to a year in that site and some of them are not ready to finish this job if we allow them to go the way they are going about it. They are also aware that this is a contract and I do not see reasons contractors should default. There are ways we are going to go with them as contained in that agreement. Each of the contractor has a cheque or a guarantor deposited in the ministry that if you fail to do this work, deposit your cheque in a bank and we will get our money. It was written in the agreement and they all signed.

“So, it is one of the measures we are going to take against them. We will arrest the contractors if he fails to complete the job on or before September 25th and we will take that contractor to court for court to compel him to adhere to the contract agreement.

“I am not aware of any governor’s kinsmen or stakeholders handling and project there and they are not those I am having problems with, but the contractors. The law is there and it is a respecter of nobody. You cannot just wake up at the middle of the night and decide to change the goal post. It is not possible”, he said.

Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Honourable Jude Chikadibia Okpor, said that Governor Nwifuru accommodated local content to encourage Ebonyi people to make conscious effort to stimulate the economy of the State.

His words: “If the governor’s well thought out intensions to accommodate local contents in execution of contract in the State is referred to as kinsmen, I do not understand. But the truth remains that Ebonyi is an economy all of us must make conscious effort to stimulate if the resources of the state are given access to participate in the execution of contract, it will go a long way to stimulate the economy of the state.

“These people are going to buy materials from people of the state and invariably it will help them to pay their taxes and other obligations to the State. So, no matter who is involved as His Excellency said, the law will take its course at the end of the expiration of the time that has been set by the state government because nobody is going to drag the state government out because of its magananity to patronise local content”, he opined.