Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen This came just as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday confirmed that it had summoned the Chairman of the company, Wale Babalakin, over “ongoing investigation.”
Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, told journalists in Abuja that Bi-Courtney was free to go to court over the revocation of the contract. Onolememen on Monday had announced government’s revocation of the 2009 agreement with Bi-Courtney for the rehabilitation of the 125- kilometre road .
Bi-Courtney, under the agreement, was to spend N89.53bn on the reconstruction of the road and collect tolls on it for 25 years under the Design, Build, Operate and Transfer arrangement.
The minister said, “It is one of the rights given to government as a guarantor in the concession to terminate when certain things go wrong in the section prescribed in the agreement. And that is precisely what government did. So they are free to go to court and government will meet them in the law court.”
While announcing the cancellation of the contract on Monday, Onolememen had said the action was taken because the company had consistently flouted the rules of engagement by failing to execute the DBOT project as stipulated in the agreement.
Bi-Courtney had told The PUNCH on Tuesday that it had not been informed of the termination of the contract and said it hoped that the matter would still be amicably resolved with the government.
“We have not been formally informed about the cancellation of the concession agreement and the process that led to it,” it said.
However, the Deputy Director, Press, in the Ministry of Works, Mr. Theodore Ogaziechi, on Wednesday told one of our correspondents in Abuja that a formal letter had been written to Bi-Courtney, terminating the agreement .
“Bi-Courtney has been notified about the cancellation of the contract. I can confirm to you that we have written to them,” Ogaziechi said.
The Works minister also on Wednesday dismissed fears that RCC, one of the two new companies to which the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway had been handed over to, would not be able to handle its portion of the contract. He said majority of the roads in the country were handled by the company.
He said, “RCC is one of the contractors in the category that we are comfortable with. It is RCC that did most of the very important roads in this country that have continued to provide easy movement for people.
“As we speak, they are working on the Benin-Ore-Shagamu dualisation and they are doing very well there. They are also on the Abuja-Lokoja dualisation project on section II and they are in various parts of the country even in the Niger Delta.
“As a contractor, we have no doubt in our minds that RCC is a good contractor and we are confident they will do the work well”
Julius Berger is to handle the section from Lagos to the Shagamu interchange, while RCC will handle the section from the interchange to Ibadan.
Ogaziechi said the Federal Government could no longer continue to watch the huge loss of lives on the road.
He said since the expressway was the major link to Lagos from other parts of the country, it was imperative for a decisive action to be taken to stop the “shoddy work” by Bi-Courtney.
It was also gathered that officials of Julius Berger and RCC had a closed door meeting with Onolememen on Tuesday to discuss modalities for the execution of the project.
The details of the meeting were however sketchy.
In Lagos where the EFCC expalained that its inviation of Babalakin was based on an “ongoing investigation,” there was speculation that it wanted the Bi-Courtney boss for alleged money laundering for jailed ex-governor of Delta state, James Ibori.
The PUNCH learnt that operatives of the commission stormed the Lagos home of Babalakin early on Wednesday but did not meet him. The operatives were said to have dropped an invitation for the businessman to appear in the agency’s office in Lagos.
As at 10pm on Wednesday, EFCC sources said Babalakin had not visited the agency’s office. A senior official of the commission confirmed to one of our correspondents that the operatives were in Babalakin’s house to deliver a message to him.
“There was no need for trouble as our men went there to drop an invitation letter for him to appear in our office. He was not at home, so the men dropped the letter with one of his (Babalakin) aides and turned back,” the source who craved anonymity said.
When contacted for confirmation, spokesman for the anti-graft body, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said a case between EFCC and Babalakin was already in court.
“We have taken him to court based on our investigations. Every other thing should be left for court to decide,”
No comments:
Post a Comment