By Ogar Monday
Motorist plying Mbok to Abouchiche axis of the Calabar-Ogoja road will soon heave a sigh of relief as contractors handling the rehabilitation of the road mobilized to site two years after the contract was awarded.
The road has been rendered impassable for a long time, causing traffic gridlock and multiplying travel time for people using the road.
An elated Facebook user, Joe Oko Odey, who travelled through the road today posted that “repair work has commenced on the Mbok axis of the Calabar-Ogoja Federal Highway, people on ground said the contractor mobilized to site three days ago.”
He added that “the road has been bad for decades and nobody ‘gave a damn’.
Documents from the Federal Ministry of Works (as it was then called) show that the Contractor Messrs WellTown Stone Nig. Ltd whose name is clearly written on a sign post on site, along with 10 other companies, including Messrs NAIRDA were listed as successful bidders for the rehabilitation of the road around June 2014.
Also documents from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) show that the contract was awarded on the 3rd of December 2014 with the completion period being 18months.
According to the documents, the contract will cost Seven billion, thirty seven million, nine hundred and ninety thousand, eight hundred and twenty one naira and thirty one kobo only (N7,037,990,821.31) and funding was to come from the “2014 Appropriation /SURE-P”.
CrossRiverWatch could not confirm whether or not funds were released for the contractor to mobilize to site, and while it took the contractor close to two years to begin work on the road.
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