…Contractor debunks roof leakage claim
From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Despite a N38 billion renovation project, concerns over the integrity of the National Assembly’s roof persist, reigniting questions over the quality of the renovation work carried out on the building at a cost of N38 billion..
These fresh concerns were raised following water leakages at the White House of the National Assembly, which houses the two chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives after a heavy rainfall on Friday.
This is just as the Managing Director of Laralek Ultimate Construction Company, Olalekan Adebiyi, yesterday denied reports that Friday’s heavy rainfall caused fresh leaks at the White House segment of the complex.
An online platform had reported that the storm overwhelmed the renovation carried out between 2022 and 2024 by Visible Construction Company, a subsidiary of Laralek.
Citing unnamed National Assembly staff, the report alleged that the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) compromised standards when it awarded the contract, suggesting that such problems would not have occurred if Julius Berger Nigeria Plc had handled the project.
In a telephone interview with National Assembly correspondents, Adebiyi dismissed the report as baseless and insisted that an internal inspection confirmed the integrity of the renovated roof.
“The report to us, is unfounded and simply put, bad belle because if it was Julius Berger that carried out the renovation work, no such fake report, will be written against it,” he said.
He explained that the waterproof material used to seal the roof — Amothene, imported from the United States — remains watertight and intact.
“I wonder why some Nigerians always like to be enemies of their fellow country men for no good reason whatsoever,” he said.
Adebiyi attributed the flooding inside the chambers to water entering through smaller windows located near the top of the building, not to any failure of the roof structure itself.
“We checked and found out that it was an ingress of water that came through the smaller windows at the upper part of the Chamber Building that flooded the floor and not roof leakage,” he said.
He also slammed the report for lacking any photographic evidence.
“The said story or report, has no single picture of points of leakages from the roof which to us, is very unprofessional and unethical,” Adebiyi said.
“The report is fake as there was no leakage from any point on the roof. We did a good job and stand by it and shall surely be vindicated as more and more rains will still fall in the coming weeks and months,” he added.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration awarded the N38 billion contract in 2021 to address persistent infrastructure problems in the National Assembly complex, including fixing roof leaks, upgrading the central air conditioning system, improving chamber furnishings, and repairing the audio system.
However, Friday’s downpour exposed many of the same issues the costly renovation was meant to solve and fresh questions about whether the project delivered value for money.