Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa State on Saturday said he revoked the road contracts awarded by his predecessor due to incompetence and delay manifested by contractors handling the projects.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the governor said this in a statement issued in Dutse by his Special Assistant on Media, Muhammad Zaki.
Badaru explained that the action was not meant to stall projects initiated by the past administration in the state.
He said the state government took the decision to terminate the contracts, based on technical advice given by the supervising ministry.
The governor added that the advice indicated that the contractors handling the projects had failed to meet stipulated standards and completion period.
According to him, the contractor collected more than N1bn which was not reflected in the work done on the ground.
Badaru stated that Gagarawa-Bosuwa road of 29.75 kilometres was awarded in December at a contract sum of N3.7 billion with an 18-month completion period.
Speaking further, he said the 42-kilometre Budinga-Rambazau-Tsangarwa-Maruta-Zandam Nagogo road, was also awarded in December at a contract sum of N5 billion.
The governor said the first phase covering Budinga-Tsangarwa had a completion period of 12 months and both contracts were awarded to one company.
According to Badaru, the company collected over N1 billion as mobilisation fee for the two projects.
“To date, only 18 kilometres of site clearing and 6.3 kilometres of filling have been carried out on Gagarawa-Bosuwa, more than six months after mobilisation. On Kila-Tsangarwa road, only five kilometres of site clearing and five kilometres of filling have been achieved, when the contractor should have reached 50 per cent completion, having been on site for six out of the 12 months completion period,” he said.
He added that the state government had no choice but to terminate the contract, recover public funds collected, and re-award same to a more competent and tested contractor.
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