FG terminates CCECC contract for Port Harcourt–Aba road over poor performance

The Federal Government has terminated the 43-kilometre Port Harcourt–Aba road contract handled by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the Minister of Works, David Umahi, announced on Sunday, October 19.

The ministry said the contractor’s failure to improve works despite repeated warnings has left the project at the verge of collapse.

Umahi, speaking to reporters after inspecting the site, described the job as an inherited project that the ministry has continued to fund in an effort to complete at least one carriageway.

He said CCECC’s construction methods — notably leaving long stretches with only binder and failing to apply wearing and properly construct shoulders — have caused serious concern.

“We have issued warnings to CCECC more than 20 times,” he said.

According to the minister, parts of the road worked on two years ago are already failing.

The project, which includes the use of concrete for shoulders and asphalt for the 7.3-metre carriageway, deteriorated because binder was laid without the required wearing course and shoulders.

Umahi said letters asking the contractor to maintain completed sections were ignored.

The ministry will now seek qualified indigenous contractors to take over the Port Harcourt-bound portion and complete the work immediately, Umahi said.

He directed the site to issue CCECC a 14-day notice of termination and warned that if the company does not mill out the paid-for binder and replace it properly, the government will shut down its projects in Nigeria.

Umahi also threatened further action if CCECC fails to remedy the situation: “If from tomorrow they don’t get to start amending this, I will come back and arrest the Chinese people who are on this project because they have taken the money, and they have to maintain these places,” he said, insisting the company must commit in writing to restore the sections it was paid to construct.

The minister added that the ministry will publish the warnings sent to CCECC so the public can see the correspondence and the efforts made to get the contractor to meet specifications.

He expressed frustration that firms with multiple federal contracts would deliver substandard work despite continued funding and oversight.