Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has expressed disappointment over the delay in the execution of the N5.1 billion Asaba Airport runway project.
Okowa, who expressed his displeasure at a news conference in Asaba, noted that the contract for the project was signed in October 2015 with the State Government paying 50 per cent mobilisation fee.
The governor said the project was to be completed in March 2016 but at present, only 24 per cent of the job had been completed by the contractor, ULO Consult Limited.
He said: “The case of the Asaba airport runway project has been a major headache to us a government because the interest of the people of Delta state is foremost in my heart.
“With all we did for the contractor his work remained very slow even when we have even over mobilised the contractor.”
He said that only recently, the contracting firm notified the state government of its intention to withdraw from the job.
Okowa narrated: “This is a contract that was awarded by the past administration in May 2015, just eight days to my swearing-in, at a cost of a little above N5 billion.
“When we came in, we believed we needed not stop the process.
“We went and took a bank loan in order to get the project done, knowing very well that we cannot joke with the runway and other ancillary facilities at the airport.
“Right from October 2015 when money was released to the contractor till November 2017 when he signified interest to withdraw from the job, only 24 per cent of it was achieved.
“You will agree with me that that obviously is not acceptable to any responsible government, but by the grace of God, we have accepted the withdrawal and we will re-negotiate the contract.
“However, very soon, the state Accountant-General, the Commissioner for Works and his Finance counterpart will sit down and look into the whole contract.
“I want to believe that by the contractual agreement, the contractor should owe us, and we have to recover our money.”