Adamawa Senator Wants Dismissal of Contractor Over Shoddy Handling of FG Roads

Adamawa Senator Wants Dismissal of Contractor Over Shoddy Handling of FG Roads 

By Billy Graham Abel Yola

The Senator representing Adamawa north, Binta Masi, has called for the revocation of the a 90 kilometres Mubi-Gwoza road project awarded to RHAS Nigeria limited saying the company is incompetent and lacks the capacity to handle the project.

Binta explained that the work has fallen short of the standard and ideals of the president Buhari's led administration and has deprived her people the benefit of enjoying the impact of president Muhammadu Buhari's good governance.

She said, the state governor who is from constituency, the two members of the house of Representatives, the five members of the state house of assembly from the area and the entire members of the community

have all expressed displeasure at the shoddy quality of work done by the contractor and would want the contract revoked and handed over to another competent contractor who would deliver the work according to specifications.

Binta made the remarks, Monday, while on a routine tour of her constituency of Madagali, Michika. Mubi and Maiha.

Binta said, "President Muhammadu Buhari has noted with concern the infrastructural deficits of the north east caused by the boko haram insurgency and was kind enough to award project to close the infrastructural gaps and it is unacceptable for contractors handling projects in the area to fail live up to expectations.

"The people from the ministry of works, power and housing are here to see what we have been complaining about for about a years both in terms of the the slow pace of work and shoddy quality of work done.

"From what we have seen at Hildi, Kuzum bridge in Michika, Shuwa in Madagali and other parts of the my constituency, it is clear that our outcry was in order.

"President Muhammadu Buhari has considered it necessary that all roads in the country should be motorable, so it is important that work is done properly and by competent people.

"This road project runs from Mubi junction to Gwoza and it was meant to bring ease to the life of the people and to help facilitate the movement of goods and services but instead, it has compounded and made life difficult for the people here because of the shoddy state of work.

"These areas are not prone to flooding, but the people have been complaining of their houses getting flooded whenever it rains as a result the bad work.

"I am not a technical person but it is clear that the work has not been done properly and that the federal government needed to revoke this contract from this company called RHAS and award it to a competent and capable company."

Speaking on the impact of the completion of the road project on her constituency, Binta Masi said, "This is a community of a highly industrious people and an agrarian community too, so the construction of road is critical in facilitating the movement of goods and services and the revival of the economic activities here.

"We have called for the revocation of this contract and everywhere we go, you can hear the people demanding for a better quality of work.

"We have however urged our people to maintain restraint and not to do anything that would undermine the work here but it is only obvious that something has to be done.

"In my constituency, from the governor, the two members of the house of Representatives, the five members of the state house of Assembly, we have agreed on one thing that there is a need for this company to be replaced. 

"My people have spoken, I have taken their cry to the appropriate quarters and they are here to assess whether this company called RHAS has the capability to handle the project. 

"Our cry is simple, let the federal government look for a competent contractor to handle this job. 

"This is a trunk a road, that runs from Yola, to Borno and to Yobe and our area is one of the places that has suffered from boko haram insurgency and these roads were designed to address infrastructural deficits in the area, so it is sad to see that the people saddled with the responsibility to do so are failing the people.

"We need speedy response from government so that our people will feel the impact of good governance of president Muhammadu Buhari, we were in Hildi the same complaints on the quality of work, we were also in Kuzum, Michika and Shuwa in Madagali, the same complaints, so, something has to be done to address these unrest caused by the incompetent state of work done.

"If a project work amounting to about N20 billion is awarded, there should be some degree of commitment to the work reflective of president Buhari's ideal, its obvious things are not done in the way and manner this administration wants jobs done."

Bashir Bello, a resident of Michika said, "I have personally taken this fight and wrote a letter to the Senator telling her that these people have fallen short of standard, capacity and competence and we the indigenes of the community want an outright revocation of the contract.

"I have seen then at work, they lack manpower and use 'Keke napep' tricycle to convey their goods and personnel."

Another resident of the community, Abdulaziz Mahmuda said, "This company has already failed us, We have been posting the picture of their poor job on media and people think we are lying but the people from the ministry are here and they have seen it for themselves.

"This people only very visit the site once in a while and then vanish and I think these people will not finish this road in 21 years."

The site engineer of the company, Ghais Saiddimme, explained that the fully is fully on ground and is ready to work, it is only waiting for permission to do so.

Ghais said, "We are not responsible for the water flooding into the community but we can help CV correct it professionally.

"Most of the houses in the community have been built long ago beneath the road level and the federal government has elevated it's road level far above the ground surface in order to protect it against been easily washed off but the problem can be fixed."

The Senator later visit another abandoned road project from Mubi to Maiha local government, which has been awarded since 2013 but the contractor left in the wake of the insurgency and has not returned to site till date.

Binta lamented the inability of the contractor to mobilise to site to complete the 60 kilometers roads having done only a little over 4 kilometers saying the bad state of the road is having an adverse effect on the socio-economic wellbeing of the members of her constituency and appealed to the federal government to come to the aid of the area and compel the contractor to mobilise back to site.