9th House of Representatives member for Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Ntufam Eta Mbora, has expressed dismay over the poor handling of road contract in his constituency NEGROIDHAVEN has confirmed.
Ntufam Eta Mbora, who spoke with journalists in Calabar shortly after inspecting some constituency projects in Calabar and Odukpani local government areas, described the shoddy handling of road projecr located at 8-Miles at the outskirts of Calabar metropolis as unacceptable.
The Rep, who explained that he has earlier drawn the attention of officials of federal ministry of works in Calabar on the need for strict supervision, accused the works officials of colluding effectively with the contractor, Messer Cholaina Nigeria Limited based in Lekki, Lagos, in messing up the construction of the Old Adiabo road in flagrant disregard to standard procedures and the contractual agreement.
He said: “After inspecting the Old Adiabo road, I feel very sad on its terrible state and has personally reported the matter to the office of the minister of works in Abuja and other relevant MDAs urging them to compel the contractor to return to site and quickly redress the anomaly before issueing certificate of completion to process any payment.
“I would not allow any contractor to frustrate any of my constituency projects through poorly executed jobs, thereby exposing the envisaged beneficiaries to imminent danger and by so doing, negating the good intention of government.
“Before now, some concerned stakeholders of the community have raised the alarm over the fraudulent activity of the company. I can assure them that efforts are on to redress the abnormally.”
Speaking, a concerned resident of the area, David Edem, Esq, appealed to relevant authority to prosecute the contractor and the federal controller of works in Calabar for allegdely conniving to sabotage the genuine intentions of the government in the area of addressing the basic need of the citizenry.
Edem alleged that the contractor assigned for the job lacks the needed manpower, engineering flair and basic vital equipment for road construction.
He expressed shock that even after notifying the federal controller of works on the alleged incompetency of the contractor, the federal controller intentionally turned a blind eye to haphazard job.
According to him,”when the company arrived the community with spade, shovels and diggers without any earth- moving equipment to construct the Old Adiabo road, the community visited the Calabar office of the federal ministry of work alerting the controller on the glaring inadequacies, but nothing was done to check the excesses of company”.
Also speaking, Ene Ankot, Esq, said the management of the company should be held responsible for the low standard, stressing that the firm lacks professional integrity to execute any engineering assignment judging by the quality of job done at the old Adiabo Road.
When our correspondent visited the office of State Controller of Works at Federal Secretariat Calabar, the front desk officer, who does not want his name on print, said the Controller, Engr Bassey Nsentip was out on official duty.
A call put across to the Controller was not returned. But a source in the office disclosed that there was little they could have done towards enforcing strict adherence to established standard because of the robust relationship of the contractor with top officials of Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja.
Efforts to get the federal controller of work Engr Bassey Nsentip to comment on the issue prove abortive as he was said to be indisposed.
