The Oyo State Government, on Thursday dismissed ENL Consortium, the contractor handling the Ibadan Circular Road Project.
It was learnt that the stop work order on the construction was with immediate effect.
This followed an initial notice of termination of contract said to have been handed to the contractor on August 31, 2020.
Prof. Dahud Sangodoyin, the Commissioner for Public Works and Transport, had visited the construction site to restate the government’s stance. He urged the contractor to evacuate the construction site as its services were no longer needed, as reflected in the disengagement letter.
The Commissioner, who spoke with journalists after the visit to the site, said, “The consortium’s contract was terminated after the progress of work was highly unsatisfactory within the timeframe of the contract.”
Sangodoyin maintained that the work completed was below 10per cent after over three years of award and over one year after the expected day of completion.
He said the project was valuable to the state economically and infrastructurally and would be re-awarded to a competent contractor who, he said, would deliver value and work within the terms of agreement and time frame of contract.
“The circular road is part of the development agenda of Governor Makinde, so we won’t abandon it but we have terminated the contract with the contractor on the job and we are going to open another phase to award to a competent contractor,” he said.
Recalled that the 32.2km road was awarded in may 2017, while construction commenced in September 2017 and was scheduled to be completed by 18th March, 2019 before the official contract termination order.
Meanwhile, the state government has said that it is working round the clock to avert both natural and human induced disasters.
Giving the indication on Thursday was the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Rauf Olaniyan, at the opening of the quarterly stakeholders’ meeting of the state Emergency Management Agency, held at the state secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.
Olaniyan, who is also the Chairman of the Oyo State Emergency Management Agency, said the stakeholders’ convergence was important so review the trending emergency threats in the health sector posed by COVID-19, the security challenges posed by cattle herders and fire disasters that occur during the dry season.
Represented by Alhaji Lateef Yusuf, his Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Olaniyan urged the stakeholders to deliberate on issues that would mobilize the people to build a safety-conscious culture so as to insulate the state against varying degrees of emergencies.
The Deputy Governor added that the government is reducing youth unemployment by engaging able hands into the civil service, adding that it is a way to reduce insecurity as the youths would be engaged in dignifying ventures.
He urged the residents of the state to take precautions by wearing face mask always, avoid crowded places and avoid indiscriminate use of fire.
Earlier, the Administrative Secretary of the State Emergency Agency, Alhaji Lukman Aransi, said the agency had been well equipped and positioned to respond to disaster in a swift manner.
He told members that the meeting was aimed at charting a course on how to flatten the COVID-19 curve, avoid fire disaster in the dry season, and respond to varying degrees of security threats with the aid of partnering security agencies.
