Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Action Against Corruption has raised its displeasure with the Benue State government over the abandoned N115B road project across the state.
The group specifically complained about the abandonment of the project which is to be executed across the twenty three local government areas of the State by the contractors who are agitating for their payment before going to site.
The pressure group in a media note signed by her Convener, Obi Okafor stated that it’s a misplaced priority for any government to plan to waste a whooping N5B on a mere five kilometer road per local government.
The group pressed further that by its calculation, Benue State will be spending N1B for just a kilometer road project.
According to the group, the government has approved a total sum of N115B on just 115 kilometers road across the twenty three local government areas of Benue State.
The group also alleged that it is on paper that Seventy Percent payment has been made to the contractors as an upfront while the contractors have complained that it’s only Fifteen Percent payment that was made to them.
The statement reads in parts:”As a result of this, the contractors who have decided not to go to the sites are saying that they will not go to work until the seventy percent upfront is paid to them.
“More worrisome is the fact that the said N115B is going to be deducted from the accounts of the twenty three local governments in the state through the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Makurdi despite a directive from the Presidency that all state governors should obey Local Government autonomy”
The pressure group also disclosed that the twenty three local government chairmen in the state are agitating for the payment of N100million which is to be made to each of them from the contract funds.