The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has threatened to send officials of the ministry who have been conniving with contractors to frustrate government’s efforts to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for prosecution.
This is coming almost 2 weeks after the Umahi was engaged in a running battle with staffs of the ministry after he locked them out of the office for coming.
This was made known by Umahi on Tuesday while speaking to State House correspondents at the State House, Abuja, after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, where he said he would flush out those elements within the ministry.
Gang up
The minister, who had alleged a gang-up against him by some major contractors on the plan of the federal government to adopt as a policy the use of concrete reinforcement for the construction of roads across the country, however, announced that he now has President Tinubu’s backing for the adoption of the new policy.
On the reasons for meeting the President, Umahi told the journalists that those within the system, who are benefiting from those threatening him and the country over the new direction being taken by the administration have become a problem in the ministry.
The minister said,
- “There are some elements within that are also fighting me, who are also benefiting from the system and that is the greatest problem we have and I just pretended. I will flush those elements out and send them to ICPC to handle them because nobody can hold this country to ransom.’’
He, however, added that some have keyed into the policy just as major cement producers have agreed to discount prices for such government road builders.
He also highlighted the advantages of cement roads over asphalt/bitumen, including cheaper costs and the need to encourage local production of cement against the importation of bitumen.
Umahi further warned contractors against the dodgy attitude of securing about 20 projects but ended up deploying as few as two units of equipment to the site.
More to follow…
