Chief Ike Onyenweaku, the Abia Commissioner for Agriculture has urged the Federal Government to take decisive action on the ongoing construction of an industrial agro processing estate.
Onyenweaku made the call at Olori in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state during a joint monitoring exercise on projects being sponsored by the Federal Government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government had awarded the N439. 5 million contract to ROZI International Nig. Ltd. And it was mobilised on Sept. 21, 2011.
When completed, the project is expected to house two factories, amenity block, administrative block, utility block and a clinic.
Others facilities will include two bungalows, a bore-hole and four labour lines.
The project was to be completed in 12 months. However, eight months into its take-off, only 6.5 per cent of the work has been done, according to a Consultant.
“The contractor has shown that he doesn’t have the capacity to deliver the project and this will definitely affect the implementation of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government in Abia,” he said.
Onyenweaku said that even after informing the contractor of the visit of the inspection team,“he decided not to come and explain issues”.
Meanwhile, Mr Sylvester Baye and leader of the team, expressed regret that the contractor had not taken the project seriously.
Baye, who came from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Development, said: “Even after several warnings for the contractor to take his job seriously he decided not to heed the advice.
“We are not happy that he is not even relating properly with the state government that is the beneficiary of this project.
“We had expected him to come here and tell us what his constraints were with a view to sorting them out,” Baye said.
Mr Hyacinth Eze of Vourti Bon Consultants, who represented the South East Zonal Consultant of the projects, said that they were not satisfied with the job done so far.
“The overall job done here by the contractor is just 6.5 per cent and he has not spent up to the mobilisation amount of N29.9million given him.
“We have threatened him with three warning letters to return to site and continue with his work to no avail.”
Eze, however, said that there would be need to review the contractual terms in order to realise the project.
Meanwhile, Mr Chidi Nnamerenwa and project supervisor, claimed that contractor had some problems with their host community bordering on threats and theft of their working materials.
Nnamerenwa also blamed the slow pace of work at the site on change in government policies, leading to increase in prices of building materials and labour.