- Community Association Decries Slow Pace Of Work
By Amos Aar
THE UNKNOWN contractor handling the Olaidu/Ojigo rural electrification project in Okpokwu LGA of Benue State has returned to site following National Record‘s report although the pace of work is going at a very slow space.
The decades-old project, which was turned into a conduit for shady contract awards without completion despite gulping over N124 million in mobilisation fees, was hastily commissioned with a power generator prior to the 2023 general elections.
National Record had reported last October that the project, which was first initiated in 1997 by the then chairman of Okpokwu local government council, Dr Emmanuel Idoko, through direct labour, was abandoned following the death of Gen. Sani Abacha which brought the then transition programme to an abrupt end.
However, the federal government under its rural electrification scheme restarted the project in 2018.
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Since then, and up to 2022, three shady companies; Lapideo Multi-services Limited, E&E Multi Services & Investment Nigeria Limited and Sprinters Tech Company Limited, have successively been awarded contracts but the project remained uncompleted, although commissioned but not functional.
Confirming the return to site by the contractor, President of Ojigo Central Development Community (OCDC), Mr Justice Christopher Obochi, told our reporter on Friday that eleven (11) electric poles have been mounted across Ogbehe/Ipole bridge.
Obochi however expressed dismay that even with the resurfacing of the contractor, there’s no appreciable progress since the 11 poles were mounted without wiring and that the contractors were nowhere to be seen since the poles were mounted.
The national financial secretary of OCDC, Mr Emmanuel Okwori, corroborated Obochi on the slow pace of work. He told our reporter that after the contractors mounted the poles about three months ago, they had not been sighted again.
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“They [contractors] left and they have not come back. So, we’re not impressed about this because they promised one week but it is getting to more than three months now. We have not heard anything about coming to do the wiring”, Okwori said.
Asked which company mounted the eleven poles, Obochi did not know just as it was the case when they made fruitless efforts in the previous report to identify the contractors who were handling the project.
“None of them showed up. Like you know, a federal lawmaker representing our area is the de facto contractor and he’s the one that sent one of his labourers to install the poles,” the National President of OCDC replied through WhatsApp chat when contacted.
