TheCable

The house of representatives says the N155 billion contract for the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kano road is more than the worth of the project.

The contract is meant to be completed within 36 weeks.

Speaking to journalists after inspecting sections of the road at the weekend, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, chairman, house committee on works, said other companies quoted N90 billion for the contract.

Abubakar said despite collecting N70 billion, not much has been done on the road by Julius Berger.

The lawmaker said the house has received a number of petitions about the project, adding that the performance of the contractor is below expectation.

“What we are saying is that the cost for this project is too high. We know of some companies that quoted N90 billion for this project, but we don’t want to mention names. We have several petitions regarding this project in the house,” he said.

“The cost was initially N159 billion before it was scaled down to N155 billion. There is nine months left on the contract and we must emphasise that it must be delivered on schedule. There will be no extension. Otherwise, we will apply the force of the constitution.

“We have a similar experience on the Lagos-Ibadan road and that project is almost 15 years now and it has not been completed. We don’t want that to repeat itself on this road.”