Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has threatened his Commissioner for Works, George-Kelly Alabo, with termination over delay on a road construction project in the Abua/Odual Local Government Area (LGA) in the state. Wike gave the Commissioner a 24-hour ultimatum while conducting the flag-off of construction of Ekagho-Ogboloma-Adada Link Road in the state on Friday.
The governor stopped his address midway to seek out the representative of the contractor, Lubrik Construction Company. He was however informed that the woman in question had left after addressing the audience. Turning to an official off-camera, presumably his Commissioner of Works, Wike asked, “Why have they not mobilised to Abua? They collected the money; they collected [for the roads] here, so why have they not mobilised?”
The government official responded inaudibly to which the governor said, “What is preliminary works? Did they collect our money preliminarily? Call the company, now! Let them come here.” When a man of South-Asian descent appeared before the governor, the latter asked why the company had not “moved to site on the other road in Abua” after collecting the state government’s money. “Soon we will start to move to that place,” the unidentified contractor replied.
“Commissioner for Works, I give you 24 hours. If they don’t move to site, return our money immediately,” he said to cheers from Ekagho residents in Rivers State. “You see, part of the problem – that’s why our problem is not only the company. Even those that are supervising the job are part of the problems we have. “This company has collected the money more than two months ago, and you’re telling us now that they are preparing after [taking] money from us. Let them not move to site till tomorrow, I will sack you as the Commissioner for Works.”
According to Wike, there is no basis for the delay.
