By Emma Obe
Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has said that he fired the former Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Igbiks Tamuno, because he allegedly interfered with the work of Julius Berger Nigeria PLC that was executing a project for the state government.
Speaking at the contract signing ceremony with two contractors for two road projects in the state, the governor said the former commissioner wrote a letter to Julius Berger to stop work on the flyover projects going on in the state capital without clearing from him.
He said, “I don’t know how a commissioner can write to a company to stop work without my approval. And Julius Berger in that matter, to stop construction in the entire State, I have never heard of such a thing before. I didn’t know that commissioners have so much power like that.
“I’m saying it because some of you don’t even know the limits of your power (referring to the commissioners). These are contractors working for the state government. He (Tamuno) never interfaced with the Ministry of Works. We have paid Julius Berger and you ask them to stop work, so that they will come and ask for variation later?”
Tamuno had been summarily fired while he was addressing a press conference on air safety in Port Harcourt and the menace of soot.
The two road contracts signed by the governor with the contractors were the Trans-Kalabari road to be constructed by Lubrik Construction Company Limited and the second Phase of the Sakpenwa – Bori – Kono road awarded to the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation.
Wike said he extended the Sakpenwa – Bori – Kono road because of the importance his administration placed on opening up rural communities for development.
Those who signed for the Rivers State Government were the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor; the Commissioner for Works, Elloka Tasie-Amadi and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works, Mrs. Ebere Emenike.
The General Manager of CCECC, Zou Xiaowei and his Deputy, Gao Qiang, the General Manager of Lubrik Construction Company, Rabih Elramedi and Kennedy Odogbo signed for their respective companies.
Wike said, “The money is paid to you directly every month by the banks; N1 billion each. For the Trans-Kalabari road, which is about N13 billion. We believed that you have no excuse not to finish the road in 14 months.”
According to the governor, the companies have also been told to engage indigenes of the areas in direct, and contract employments including opportunity to supply materials used on site.
“Move in and make sure that you deliver. I am going to commission those roads next year. Any project we have awarded must be completed before we leave office.
“I hear people are criticising us that we are doing roads everywhere. How do you develop a community without roads? The key thing to development is road infrastructure.
“How do you promote agriculture when you cannot evacuate whatever you have produced from the farm? How do you talk about human capital development when students cannot have roads to go to school? Even to access healthcare service you need a road to go to the health facility. No investor can come to a place when there are no roads.
Rivers state government, Julius Berger sign contract for 2 more flyover bridges
“Let me tell those from Kalabari, I will not take any sabotage. If anybody tries to sabotage the work, then your people will suffer because I’ll cancel the contract. Even the companies, they shouldn’t cause a crisis to sabotage the work. I will not hesitate to take drastic action.”
