BEVERLY HILLS, November 18, (THEWILL) – Anyone depending on the Asaba International Airport for travel in the approaching holiday season may be in for a rude shock as the contractor engaged by the Delta State Government for the project, ULO Consultants Ltd has formally withdrawn from site citing “unfavourable working conditions.”
The contractor has also said it will pull out of all projects being executed on behalf of the state government.
Sources with knowledge of the development told THEWILL weekend that the contractor’s sudden withdrawal may prompt the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to downgrade and shut the airport for safety reasons.
THEWILL recalls that the airport had been previously shut over safety concerns after aviation officials expressed concerns over the runway and taxiway, as well as the hills surrounding it.
The State government and the contractor have been trying to correct the issues raised by federal aviation officials without much success. The contractor’s withdrawal will technically mean that the rehabilitation work at the airport has failed at least for now.
ULO in a letter by Uche Okpuno, its chairman, to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, said his company would begin disengagement from site from November 20, 2017. The letter was dispatched to Okowa yesterday (Friday, November 17, 2017.
“The estimates prepared by the Ministry of Works in 2014 without our inputs negates due process and principle of contract as no reputable Civil Engineering company of competence was involved in the preparing of a competitive Bill of Engineering measurement and evaluation,” the company said.
We gathered that Okowa has declined to review terms of the contract, which was initially awarded by his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan despite ULO’s insistence that it could not continue to service the project due to rising costs occasioned by the devaluation of the naira.
The disengagement of ULO will not be the first in the Okowa administration, as other notable construction companies such as CCECC, Setraco and Levante have since pulled out due to these same issues, leaving small time companies and enterprises as the only ones used by the government to carry out construction.
In withdrawing their entire services from the state, ULO agreed to review all the works done by them in conjunction with the State Ministry of Works to determine if in their obligation to the state, they owe or the state owes them, including a comprehensive cost audit.
