Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike while inspecting uncompleted projects in the state accused contractors of abandoning projects even after receiving funds to complete the project.
As he was inspecting Rumuolumeni road, he said “This road was given to a construction firm and it has never been awarded to anybody. Assuming it was awarded to me, what did you do as the governor? You were there, the person took the money away.
“There are certain things you don’t say in public. It is not true. The road was awarded to the firm about five years ago but nothing was done .”
On allegations that he hasn’t completed any new project, he said “That allegation is neither here nor there. It does not make sense. What they wanted was for government to abandon projects so that government’s funds will be wasted. So that there will be abandoned projects everywhere .
“What is important is that you (referring to former Governor Chibuike Amaechi) had eight years and you were unable to complete the projects. You abandoned government totally. What you would have done was to complete the projects. Election was done in April; so you still had one month to complete but you did not do anything.”
At Nkpogu Road, he said “Let me also speak on this Nkpogu Bridge. It was abandoned by the former government. The contractor told us he needed N500 million to fix it. So we asked him to go ahead. I expect that N500 million should not be a reason this bridge should not be completed. Tomorrow they will tell you this road was almost 99 percent completed. Now you see what we are doing here. When this bridge is done, it will ease traffic.
“We are also working on Aboloma-Woji-Akpajo Road which we took over at about 40 percent completion stage. We are going to complete it this month.
“I have said any useful project abandoned in the state by past governments will be completed because we don’t want to encourage abandoned project syndrome in our state”.
Wike also inspected Borikiri, Creek Roads. He reiterated his promise to embark on projects that will be completed.
He said “It does not make sense to build a bridge I know I can’t finish in eight years. I just do the basic things that people can be happy with. These are little things that don’t require much money and people will be happy.”
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