PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has given MTN and RCC Company Nigeria Limited ultimatum to complete the Enugu-Onitsha expressway before May 10, 2026.
President Tinubu, through the Works minister, Senator David Umahi, disclosed this when he met with MTN over the slow funding and execution of the Enugu-Onisha expressway by MTN under the Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment (Tax Credit) Scheme.
According to Umahi, MTN will be held responsible should the road fail after construction on account of shady job by the contractor as there will be no variation or VOP on the project.
He then urged RCC to note, that going forward, the operation of VOP in their projects must be in accordance with the procedure contained in the conditions of contract and not at the whims and caprices of the contractor.
“There must be a commitment in writing between MTN and the Federal Ministry of Works that this offer is predicated on these conditions herein set out. There must be a commitment because the more the job delays, the more there is variation.
Umahi also reiterated that the Federal Ministry of Works is unwavering in its commitment towards ensuring that the contractor handling the project, and in this case MTN that is handling the project under the Tax Credit Scheme is made to ensure quality and speedy delivery of the project.
He then frowned at why an official of MTN could go on his way to insinuate that the directive made by the Federal Ministry of Works that RCC Ltd should stop using materials that could derail the quality outcome of the job amounted to a sabotage of the projects of Mr President in South East.
Umahi said: “We have to put the records straight that this ministry has the responsibility to ensure quality delivery of work by contractors. And the contractor in this case is MTN. We went through what MTN was doing. We discovered that they were using peeled sand to do the job.
“I’m an engineer. I’m not a history graduate. I’m a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and I’ve spent all my life in the field. We gave a directive which is in line with the general conditions of contract that should stop using such sand but go back and use river sand which we paid for.”
He emphasised on the need for RCC Nig Ltd to play by the rule in project variation. He decried as unacceptable a situation where RCC could do a job of N38 billion and demand for a VOP N14 billion and said that going forward such indulgence by contractors in the name of inflation would not be tolerated.
However, the minister also appealed to cement manufacturers to reduce the cost of cement to N7,000 as the price of dollar has drastically reduced and the cost of petrol coming down.
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“We are using this medium to tell the cement manufacturers that at the time, the dollar was almost N2,000, they increased cement to N7,500. Why should today that the President has brought dollar to stability to about N1,400, and is still going down, why should cement be selling for N9,500? We are requesting cement manufacturers to bring down the cost of cement to N7,000. If after one week they don’t do that, I have to complain officially to Mr President,” he added
The meeting was attended by the minister of State for Works, Honourable Mohammad Bello Goronyo, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Works, Engineer O O Adebiyi, the representatives of MTN, the Managing Director of RCC Company Nig Ltd and his team.
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