Poor work: Assembly advises Sule to stop payment to contractor

Nasarawa State House of Assembly has urged Gov Abdullahi Sule to stop further payment to contractor handling 13.45km Rinze-Ngare- Ancho Baba- Andaha road in Akwanga LGA over alleged poor work by the contractor.

The House Committee Chairman on INEC, Multilateral Cooperation and Community Development, Mohammed Okpoku, gave the advice in Akwanga while inspecting the road.

Okpoku said that the 85 per cent of money received by the contractor out of the N209.3m contract sum dii not tally with the work done so far.

“To be sincere, we are not happy with the work done by the contractor handling the 13.45km Rinze-Ngare- Ancho Baba- Andaha road.

“The contractor said he recieved 85 per cent of the total contract sum, it means there is remaining only 15 per cent of the money to be completed by the state government.

“The work done did not tally or match with the money received by the contractor.

“It is in view of this that we are directing the state government to henceforth stop giving the contractor his remaining balance until he does the needful,” he said.

Okpoku also called for the overhauling of Ngare- Ancho bridge for the purpose of saving the lives of the people and boosting their socio-economic activities.

He said that the committee was out to ensure that the projects were done according to specifications for the overall development of the state.

“We are out to ensure that quality works are done in order to justify the state government huge investment in rural development.

“And we want to ensure that no contractor short-changed the government,” he said.

Okpoku assured of the committee’s readiness to ensure that all the ongoing construction of rural roads were done according to specifications.

He also urged the Bureau for Rural Development to intensify efforts in supervising contractors to ensure that good jobs were delivered.

He commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule for the construction of roads among other projects across the state.

Also, Mr Timothy Katsa, Director of Engineering, Nasarawa State Bureau for Rural Development, said that the 13.45km road was awarded at the cost of N209.3 million for a duration of three months.

The director commended Gov. Sule for embarking on rural road construction towards improving the standard of living of the people.

Earlier, Mr Andrew Simon of Sergio Construction Company Limited, the contractor handling the construction of the road, confirmed that the company recieved 85 per cent of the total contract sum of N209.3 million.

“We have recieved 85 per cent of the total contract sum, remaining 15 per cent and I want to assure of quality works,” he said.

The contractor also assured that the work would be done according to specifications.