The Federal Government has indicated its intention to hand over the reconstruction of the bad portions of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway to a construction firm belonging to the Dangote Group, AG Dangote.
A Source in the Ministry who spoke to the press under the condition of anonymity in Lagos after inspection of the bad portions of the road in conjunction with the officials of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) said that the road had been ceded to AG Dangote and that they were at the final stage of the contract award.
According to the source,” The road is under procurement and it has been ceded to AG Dangote and they just at the final stage of the award. After the Bureau for Public Procurement has certified that they don’t have a question to the submission of the Ministry, then the project will go to FEC for approval, after that, it will be awarded to AG Dangote”.
She informed that she was on road inspection on the invitation of the NARTO adding that since the road had been ceded to AG Dangote, she would go back and advise them to carry on palliative work on the failed section pending when the main reconstruction work will get there.
“So, having seen this now, I will go back and tell them, they are my contractors. The same way they have been doing in Tincan, if you go to Tincan as we speak now, they are doing some palliatives, they first did on Oshodi bound and now they are at Tincan bound, so, they can extend the same palliative to this place pending when the reconstruction will take off and the palliative will include de-silting of all the drains, taking water out of the road even if it is on the service lane, they can concentrate and do palliatives so as to make it motorable pending when the reconstruction will get there”, she said.
While acknowledging the level of repair made on the road by the Tank Farm owners, she said that the work done so far on the road by the Tank Farm Owners would subsist pending when the reconstruction would get there even as she admitted that everything would have to go when the reconstruction work got there.
“It was just because they were in a hurry, they couldn’t wait for Dangote to mobilize and do the palliative on the road. That’s why we allowed them since it is affecting their business, just like it was affecting Dangote and Co. business, that’s why they contributed to do the Apapa Wharf road” she added.
On whether the contract is an extension of Apapa Wharf Road reconstruction, she said,” It’s not an extension of that contract. Dangote is recouping back his money through tax relief on this one but Apapa own was purely CSR, they are not asking for any tax relief”.
Asked how soon the palliative would start on the road, she replied,” As soon as I get there now, I will inform them, very soon. We are trying to meet in the Ministry may be to appoint another contractor to hurriedly do the palliative but since the road is at the final state, the Ministry didn’t want to do that. Work has been ongoing for some time just on this road to get it awarded, I think the only person that can assist us do this is the contractor because they have already have a project at hand and palliative is part of the contract”.
Reacting, the Lagos State Vice Chairman, Dry Cargo Section of NARTO, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed said that “what we can do to assist is to join hands together to see that the road is free if they are coming for the palliative because if they say that the contract is at the final stage, there is nothing we can do only to rob minds to see to the accessibility of the road for the contractor to take possession of the road for reconstruction”.
Also speaking, a Chieftain of NARTO, Alhaji Sani Abubakar advised that “The option that I think will be easy for us before reconstructing the road is for Ministry of Works to help us clear the drainage so that the water will leave the road, so that they will see the work they want to do along the road”.
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