– Alert Governor Hope Uzodinma for intervention
Some of the contractors who were engaged by the sacked administration of Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha to reconstruct some major roads in the state have cried out to Governor Hope Uzodinma over what they described as serial extortion from top government appointees who even make it difficult for them to meet eye-ball to eye-ball with the Governor and brief him on the true situation of things and at what stages of the projects they are currently.
This was as revealed by one of the contractors who simply identified himself as Mr Joe and who claimed to be speaking the minds of other contractors handling road projects previously awarded by Emeka Ihediohas short-lived administration.
He stated that they all have valid documents of the contracts and had before now met with the committee set up by the Governor, headed by his deputy, Prof Placid Njoku, where they assured the government of Imo State of their readiness to comply with the “return to site directive”. “We are all back to sites, except for the few who were not appropriately or adequately mobilized. Today, the major problem we have is that some top government appointees (names withheld) usually coerce us to part with huge sums of money with attendant threats to revoke our road contract, should we fail to comply”, he stated.
“We want to meet with the governor to explain to him some of the major challenges faced by the Imo contractors but we are often barred from seeing the governor except for those who are willing to pay such huge sum of money as gratifications demanded by the officials of government. “They demand huge sums of money from us to book appointment for us to see the governor.
It is really frustrating. We hope that some of us won’t abandon the job to concentrate on our other businesses instead of being dribbled by officials of the present administration in the state”, he equipped.
When asked if the government has defaulted in any way having paid mobilization fee for the contracts, our source said that with what is happening presently, they are worried that outright payment or discharge of contract after performance may be a challenge.
Meanwhile Community Watchdog Newspaper was reliably informed that the refusal to part with huge sum of money as bribe has cost Zerock Construction Company, the busy Port Harcourt Express road rehabilitation project as well as the Assumpta Catholic Cathedral by Control Post and that of the World Bank Housing Estate road projects awarded to them simultaneously by Emeka Ihedioha and for which they had committed impressive efforts to complete.
Our roving reporter also discovered that new Construction Companies have taken over some of the projects,including World Bank Housing Estate by Umuguma dual carriage road. The new contractors are yet to demonstrate capacity at accomplishing the road reconstruction job at its current snail speed and poor quality job execution.
