The Bayelsa state government yesterday moved against construction firms suspected to have colluded with the past administration of Chief Timipre Sylva to allegedly collect over N7billion road contracts in the state, declaring the road contracts terminated and a refund demanded from the construction firms.
While one of the contractors, Moreno, handling the construction of the Ogbia-Nembe road project is alleged to have received N6.8 billion from the state government and refused to embark on the road project, Enerco company was accused of collecting the counter part fund from the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for the construction of the? Etegwe-Tombia road project in 2007 but did not do any job.
According to the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Markson Fefegha and his Works and Infrastructure counterpart, Mr. Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the decision of the State Government to terminate the road projects was due to the lack of seriousness and commitment on the part of the contractors.
According top him, the two major roads contracts that were terminated in a move that gave strong indication of the present administration’s resolve to usher in the much needed change are the Etegwe-Tombia and Ogbia-Nembe contracts.
He stated that “The two road projects which are of great importance as the Etegwe-Tombia road gives access to the SPDC gas gathering facility at Gbarantoru, the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU), Amassoma and also the state-owned Gloryland Television while the Ogbia-Nembe road will help people access one of the most historic and tourist cities in Bayelsa State which has a? large number of crude oil and gas deposits”.
“The present administration will do away with any briefcase carrying contractor as it is in a hurry to develop the state. The? Moreno, an indigenous company, will be given lesser jobs to handle”.
Meanwhile, the Construction giants, Julius Berger have accepted to return to Bayelsa State to resume work on some critical projects it abandoned a few years ago on account of security issues.
This was the outcome of a meeting between the construction company and the state government yesterday in Government House, Yenagoa.
While speaking at the meeting, the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson said as a follow-up to preliminary discussions both parties have had, the meeting essentially?? was to fine-tune all the existing contractual issues between government and the company with a view to getting Julius Berger to go back to site.