Moses Oba
Work on the abandoned Lokoja Inland River Port in Kogi State will soon resume, Dr. George Moghalu, the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has disclosed.
Speaking in an interactive session with Newsmen in Lokoja at the weekend, Moghalu said the management has been in touch with the contractor handling the project, following the approval of the revised contract sum by the Federal Executive Council.
FEC had earlier in the year approved the Ministry of Transportation memo for N2 billion revised cost for the completion of the project.
The approval puts the total cost of the project at N6.4 billion from the reviewed N4.112 billion.
Moghalu noted that the federal government was committed to ensuring that the river port which is “critical to the Nigeria’s waterways operation”, was completed and operational.
He said despite the temporary stoppage of work on the main project due to some bottlenecks, the Authority has been on site extending the fetching and other works.
“Works on the port has been dragging for the past eight years. The project was first awarded to Messers Foby Engineering Ltd at the cost of N2.3 billion in 2007 and a mobilisation fee of N800 million was paid.
“But due to alleged inability of the contractor to perform, the contract was revoked, revised and subsequently re-awarded in the second quarter of 2012 to another company, Inter-Bau Construction Ltd, at the cost of N4.112 billion.
“The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who re-awarded the contract on March 23, 2012, gave 57 weeks as the expected period for the completion of the project but work stalled in 2016 due to irreconcilable differences between the federal government and the construction firm” NIWA Boss explained.
Moghalu said with the approval of the revised cost, work on the project will be accelerated and completed in record time.
Credit: Daily Assets