The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has terminated the contract awarded to RAJCOM Construction Company for the reconstruction of Iwoye-Owode road in the Yewa South Local Government Area of the state over slow pace of work.
Abiodun, who announced the termination of the contract during the inspection of the 25.4-kilometre road, expressed dissatisfaction over the level of job done by the company and directed the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company to take over the reconstruction of the entire road from Ilaro to Owode-Yewa.
The governor also gave the Federal Government two weeks to fix the Sango/Ota-Abeokuta road, adding that failure to do so would make his administration take over reconstruction of the road.
Abiodun said this shortly after inspecting some bad portions of the 52.5-kilometre road in Ewekoro axis on Saturday.
According to him, the action has become necessary after the state government alongside Lagos State had made frantic efforts several times to draw the attention of the Federal Government, through the office of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to repair the the road without any positive response.
The governor, who expressed worry over the hardship motorists were subjected to on the road, declared that his administration would not fold its arms and allow its citizenry to continue to suffer due to the negligence of the authority in charge of this road.
“If after two weeks, the Federal Government refuses to commence work on this road, I will take it over and reconstruct it,” he said.
While appealing to the people of the state, particularly those living along the road to be patient, the governor said the reason behind the inspection was to examine the level of infrastructural development in Ogun Central and Ogun West senatorial districts with a view to ascertain the level of damages done to some of the major roads.
He observed that the road awarded to Julius Berger about 15 years ago had been abandoned making it impassable, saying despite the various palliatives being carried out on the road, some of the blue chip companies located along the road had failed to support the efforts of the government through their Corporate Social Responsibility.
On why he sacked the contractor, Abiodun said as part of the efforts to fast-track its reconstruction, the road was initially divided into two parts where Ilaro to Iwoye was allocated to Chinese engineering construction company, while the remaining half from Iwoye to Owode-Yewa, was also awarded to RAJCOM Construction Company.
He stated that CECCC had succeeded in keeping to its promise by expediting action on its own part of the road, while RAJCOM had failed to live up to expectations.
