Expiring N280m equipment: Minister summons contractors

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung, has expressed unhappiness with the state of medical equipment wasting away in different storages at the National Stadium, Abuja.
Barrister Dalung was stunned to find that equipment worth more than N280 million, imported 16 months ago, were wasting away at the stadium.
The equipment include HP Cosmos testing treadmill, anti gravity treadmill, body composition analyzers, ice making machines, nebulizers, boxes of PR Power body torso, boxes of dumb bells and dumb bell racks, body sculptors and muscle toners. Other equipment include selector chest press, digital lean machines, steppers, cones, gymnastic mats, etc.
Some of the equipment were said to weigh up to 1000kg.
The minister had demanded an explanation on why all the equipment were unmounted and left to waste.
Dalung said: “Why will the Sports ministry buy such expensive machines and allow it to waste?
“So you people are now experts in importation and dumping?”
The Director of Sports Medicine in the Ministry of Sports, Dr. Abdulkadir Muazu, said there was no space to mount such heavy duty equipment.
Muazu said: “This building cannot take the entire equipment when installed and we need the centre to be close to the athletes when they need treatment.
“So it has to be located close to the stadium but we don’t have the space for it.
“Moreover, the equipment can only be installed by the suppliers and the one year warranty for such services has already elapsed.”
It was also gathered from Muazu, who led the inspection tour alongside the Director-General of the ministry, Mallam Alhassan Yakmut, that the contractors were given 15 per cent as mobilization fee with a balance of 85 per cent to be paid between eight to 10 weeks, but there was a breach of contract, leading to a breach of trust, hence their failure to come and install the equipment.
Barrister Dalung then asked for the contractors to see him as soon as possible to state their own side of the issue.
Three contractors, according to Muazu, supplied the equipment worth more than N280 million.
Some of the equipment had already expired as at the time of inspection.