Julius Berger construction company working on the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road project have sacked some staff members over indebtedness to the company by President Muhammadu Buhari's government.
We learnt that the workers were sacked over non-payment of
the agreed contract fee for work already done on the road by the Nigerian
government.
“Over 400 of us working with Julius Berger were sacked on
Tuesday; the reason they gave us was that the Federal Government refused to pay
Julius Berger.
“Julius Berger was already planning to abandon the project
until the Minister of Works (and Housing) came here last week and threatened
that the government would revoke the contract if Julius Berger dared to leave
the site. So, they decided to sack us,” one of the affected workers told
SaharaReporters.
The reconstruction of the 375km Abuja-Kano Road was awarded
by the Buhari-led government to Julius Berger in December 2017.
According to the government, the N155.7 billion contract was
to be funded from the 2017 and 2018 budgets.
The project eventually began in June 2018, one month after
Buhari established the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), to
be managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), to which he
also authorised the initial transfer of $650 million for “critical road and
power projects.”
In March 2021, the government changed the scope of the
repair works to be done on the highway.
According to the Minister of Works and Housing (Babatunde
Fashola), the project would now cost N797.2 billion, an increase of N642.2
billion from the initial project cost of N155 billion.
“I presented a memorandum and one report with respect to the
Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano highway to change the scope of works from
rehabilitation previously awarded to full reconstruction of two lanes on both
sides,” he had said.
“The council considered and approved the request for that
change of scope and the incidental cost consequence of changing the existing
contract from N155 billion to N797.236 billion.
“The new scope provides for full reconstruction of the main
carriageway, trailer parks, weighbridges, toll stations and additional side
lanes in the built-up areas across the FCT, Niger, Kaduna and Kano states,
which are all served by the road. This was approved by the council for the same
contractor.”
He added that the project would be done in phases with the
first phase being the 74km Kaduna-Zaria section, which is expected to be
completed by the fourth quarter of 2022 (Q4 2022).
Fashola said that the second phase, which is the 137km
Zaria-Kano section, will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1 2023);
while the last phase, the Abuja-Kaduna section, should be completed in the
second quarter of 2023 (Q2 2023).
Efforts to get Moses Duku, Julius Berger’s head of media
relations, to react were not successful as he did not answer calls made to his
mobile phone nor reply to the text message sent to him.
Efforts to get comments from Emmanuel Isibor, the media
relations officer of Julius Berger, were also unsuccessful.
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