•Okorocha threatens to revoke contract •Gov collected N24m, contractor alleges
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha and the Managing Director of
Nnutouch Global Ventures, Dr. Osita Okereke, are currently on warpath
over Governor Okorocha’s resolve to terminate the N1.3 billion project
awarded to the firm. This is even as the contractor has alleged that the
governor collected the sum of N24 million as gratification from the 15
percent payment made to his company.
The state government had awarded to Nnutouch Global Ventures the
contract for the construction of an ultra-modern Judicial Commission
Headquarters building in April 2012. However, a year after the contract
was awarded to the firm, the governor who visited the building site
recently was disappointed to discover that the building, which was
billed to be delivered in April 2013 was still at its foundation level
even after the firm was mobilised for the job.
Okorocha, thereafter, threatened to revoke the said contract and
re-award it to some other contractors who were ready to deliver the
project on time. But the Managing Director of the construction firm,
Osita Okereke, while briefing journalists yesterday in Owerri, the Imo
State capital, dared Okorocha to revoke the contract.
He blamed the state government for the delay in the execution of the
project, stating that the government had agreed to pay 40 percent
upfront as contained in the contractual terms signed between his company
and the Ministry of Justice.
“As stipulated in the contract agreement, the state government was
supposed to pay 40 percent upfront but the governor did not comply with
that but instead, he paid 15 percent totaling about N168 million,” he
said.
Okereke further alleged that the governor collected N24 million from
15 percent as gratification, thereby leaving little fund for the
execution of the project. According to him, “after payment, the company
surveyed and cleared the site and the project is still at its foundation
level since August 2012 because no dime has been paid by the state
government even after we have given 40 percent APG to the government.
“After all this, it will be callous and inhuman for the governor to
visit the site and threaten to revoke the contract even when he’s aware
that the state government has not paid the company what is due to them,”
he noted.
Okereke also lamented that “this is not the first time Governor
Okorocha is playing such pranks on my company. At the moment, the state
government owes my company the sum of N742 million as balance for some
other projects we are handling for the government such as the new
governor’s lodge, street solar electrification of Owerri-Orlu,
architectural design and surveying of Imo-European University.”
When contacted, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr.
Ebere Uzoukwa, described the allegation as laughable. He said, “I won’t
want to join issues with a man whose character is well known to the
people. The governor has never collected a dime from any contractor and
will never do. He has legitimate means of making money. His businesses
are still running. So if Okereke has any contract with the state
government, he should execute it and stop beating about the bush or else
we will expose him.”
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