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From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Ebonyi State has called on Governor Francis Nwifuru to revoke contracts and recover the funds from non-performing contractors handling the state government projects.
The council stated this in Abakaliki, the state capital, during the inspection of ongoing projects across the state, as part of its annual tradition of overseeing governmental activities.
The state chairman of the council, Nasir Nwaze, lamented the high level of negligence by some contractors.
He urged Nwifuru to force the contractors to return to sites and complete the jobs or terminate the contracts and recover the funds.
“Our findings at the industrial city cluster, we observed that virtually nothing is happening there. There were no workers. We didn’t meet anybody at the site.
“A passerby briefed us that work doesn’t go on there most of the time, but whenever they hear that the governor is coming, or that there will be an inspection team, they will mobilise to the site,” he said.
Nwaze expressed dismay at the aeronautical university in Onueke, saying that most of the buildings have not gone up to the lintel stage, with only one at about 80 percent completion, while others looked like abandoned projects.
“The only one that is almost about 80 or 85 percent completed there, they say it’s owned by Nwerogbe, also. And that is the highest one that we saw. The other ones seem to have abandoned the projects.” Nwaze explained.
He said the projects are being handled by local contractors, and he regretted that they are abusing the magnanimity of the governor, who decided to patronise and encourage them productively.
“The places we saw that the jobs have been abandoned are all from our local contractors and our brothers. They are not helping the governor. They are not helping Ebonyi State.
“We charge the commissioner, the SSA, and the SSAs for project monitoring to sit up as they are not complementing the efforts of the governor.
They should sit up and monitor these projects because if they are doing their work, these projects will not be abandoned the way they have been abandoned.
“And they do not expect that when the governor gives you a function, the governor himself will still come down to be doing the work he has given out to do.
“The IPAC calls on the governor to force these contractors back to the site, let them go and complete the jobs they have been given; or terminate the contract, use the security agencies, and recover the monies given to them,” he added.
