By Mick Oseji, Asaba
The Edo State Assets Verification Committee, set up by Governor Monday Okpebholo, says it has uncovered how the contract sum for a road project in the state was jacked up from N8 billion to N16 billion by ex – Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration.
The Sub-committee on Physical Assets and Infrastructure of the Verification Committee discovered the inflation during an inspection of the reconstruction of the Benin-Abraka Road Phase 1C.
The contract sum for the 17.5-kilometer road project was varied three times within a year. The contract was awarded to Nsik Engineering Company Limited on May 16, 2023 by Obaseki’s administration while work commenced in September 2023.
Addressing the panel at the project site, the project manager of the construction firm, Engr. Ifiokebong Ekong, said the company was mobilised with the sum of N2.9 billion, representing 25 percent of the contract sum of N8 billion.
Ekong said after the initial mobilisation, the contract sum was varied, and some amount was added to the cost of the project, explaining that the completion period of the job, which was originally put at three and a half years, but was reviewed downward to 18 months.
The project manager said the contract sum was initially N8 billion when it was awarded in September 2023, but it was reviewed upward to N12 billion in 2024 and later to the current sum of N16.4 billion in June 2024.
Commenting on the development, a member of the subcommittee, Abass Braimah, frowned at it, saying the increment is 100 percent.
He said, “I don’t think there is anywhere in Nigeria or outside that a project can be awarded for N8 billion, reviewed to N12 billion, and further reviewed to N16 billion.
“Why not just review it and take the entire purse of Edo State? If we can review from N8 billion to upward of between N12 billion and N16 billion in one year?
“What has substantially changed for you to have a 100 percent increment from N8 billion to N16 billion? Meanwhile, the job specification or contents have not changed. It is still the same thing.
“And all of these went through the Tenders Board processes. The Board must have sat down to peruse, and it was not only you who submitted documents and bid for the contract.
“Against the backdrop of several other companies that tendered, they gave you this job at N8 billion. After the job was awarded at N8 billion, they reviewed it with a 50 percent increment. Fifty percent of N8 billion is N4 billion, which increased the sum to N12 billion, and they further reviewed it to N16 billion.
“What type of games are we playing here? These are games,” he said.
Earlier, the chairman of the subcommittee, Patrick Obahiagbon, said the explanation by the project manager of the company confirmed the content of a petition the committee received from some citizens of the state on the alleged inflation of the contract sum for the road project.
Obahiagbon, who said the inflation took place within one year, alleged that it must have been done by the immediate past government to use the funds to finance the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
“The reason we have to take pains to particularly visit this site is based on a petition from Edo State citizens that we have just received.
“And the narrations of the construction firm’s project manager seem to justify the reasons and the nitty-gritty of that petition. The content of that petition was to the effect that there were massive reviews of contracts on this project because of the election.
“That the contract was colossally inflated because the outgoing governor needed money urgently and desperately to fund the September 21 governorship election.
“It makes no sense that within one year, a road contract sum would be varied from N8 billion to N12 billion and, in June, some few months to the election — maybe for election purposes— the contract sum again was varied from N12 billion to N16 billion.
“Maybe the petitioners were correct after all. If they were correct, this is an unfair deal to the people of Edo State,” he said.
According to Obahiagbon, the committee may advise the main committee to recommend to the state government that further investigation be carried out on the petition and the statement of the company’s project manager.
