Following the substandard road projects being constructed across Imo State by indigenous contractors, 247ureports.com can report the reason Governor Rochas Okorocha-led government cannot query the contractors over the obvious bad jobs.
According to investigation carried out by our reporter, almost all the roads constructed by the current administration in the last two years have begun wearing out with dilapidation.
This had led to the people of the state deriding the local contractors for lacking the capacity to carry out such projects.
But further investigations reveal that the projects were carried out by the contractors according to the specification given to them by the governor.
According to some of the contractors who spoke to our reporter in Owerri, the governor awarded 15 kilometer of roads to each of the 27 local government areas in the state at the cost of N60 million per kilometer.
The contractor, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that they were told to stop the road projects at priming level and apply for asphalt through the chairman of the Joint State and Local Government Committee on Road Projects, Hon Stan Dara.
The reason, 247ureports.com understood, was that the governor had made arrangement for bulk asphalt to be supplied to the contractors, forcing them to agree N21million per kilometer instead of N16million the actual price.
However, as the contractors completed the roads up to prime level, the state government through its agents decided to asphalt the roads.
Upon completion of every asphalting on any road, the government therefore forcibly debits the sum of N21million per kilometer allowing the contractors to go with N39million per kilometer.
In order to maximize profit, it was gathered that the government agents decided to do shoddy jobs.
‘Thus, instead of the five centimeter (5cm) thickness for the community roads, what we now have is two centimeters. That’s why you notice that in some new roads, the asphalting won’t cover some red earth, while in some cases, you find the asphalt and the red earth staying separate’, he lamented, adding that it was unfortunate that Imolites were fed with false reports against the local contractors in order to justify Governor Okorocha.
The shoddy deals had also led to many roads primed for asphalting being eroded by flood, a situation that had since put many communities and road users in acute jeopardy.
The situation became worse in this rainy season where flood had been indiscriminately sacking natives from their homes.
Moreover, the situation was made even worst by the fact the local government officers were sidelined in the monitoring of the projects.
Not until recently when the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission rattled the state government over the alleged misappropriation of the local government fund that the governor decided to perfect his misdeeds.
This, the governor did by inviting the trio of the LG Director of Administration and General Services(DAGS), Treasurer and the H.O.D Works from each council to sign a backdated contract papers stating that it was their councils’ funds that were used in prosecuting the contracts, while the HOD Works monitored them.
The reason, as gathered, was to disarm the EFCC from detecting the misapprophation of the local government council funds.
