Reps summon ministry officials over Oyo road project

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the slow pace of 45km Ijebu-Igbo-Ita-Ibadan road in Oyo State has summoned officials of the Federal Ministry of Works to appear before it on September 28.

The summon is to explain controversies surrounding the re-award of the road project to another contractor without terminating the earlier one awarded to the first contractor.

The chairman of the committee, Kwamoti Laori, made this known in Abuja at the resumed hearing of the investigation after its oversight visit to the site on September 21 in Oyo and part of Ogun State.

Those summoned by the lawmakers are the Director of Engineering Highways, South West, Director of Finance and Legal Departments.

Laori said the probe panel would not hesitate to summon the Minister of Works if the officials failed to give necessary explanation regarding the controversies over the re-award of the project.

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The committee had requested the representatives of Ministry of Works to give explanation regarding the re-award of the 45km Ijebu-Igbo-Ibadan road project to another company when the original contractor was still on site.

The Director, Highway South West, Ministry of Works, Adedamola Kuti, told the committee during its inaugural sitting on September 7 that the contract being handled by DC Engineering Limited had been terminated since September 2022

He said it had been re-awarded to two other companies, while promising the lawmakers to make a copy of the termination letter available within 72 hours.

Three weeks later, neither Kuti nor any official of the Ministry of Works was able to make a copy of the termination letter available to the committee.

The Executive Director of DC Engineering Limited, Ade Adedeji, told the committee that he did not receive any letter of termination of contract from the Ministry of Works.

He said their equipment and workers were still on the project site, adding that the same ministry had certified their work and paid them in August 2023.

The Star