ENL Consortium Limited has stated that it will not allow itself to be frustrated by any political gimmick surrounding the Ibadan Circular Road contract after the company has expended N3.9bn of its personal funds for bush clearing, compensation to land owners, asphalt laying, networks and rock blasting, warning that any attempt to break the law will be resisted by ENL, which remains the legitimate contractor of the project.
The company reiterated that it remains the lawful and subsisting concessionaire of the 32 kilometre East End Wing of the107-kilometre proposed Ibadan Ring Road, popularly known as the Ibadan Circular Road, as stated in the terms of concession agreement of August 25, 2017.
Speaking on behalf of the company in Ibadan on Thursday, Chief Moyo Adewuyi, stated that the Ibadan Circular road project has been deliberately stalled by the state government for the past eight months without considering the economic importance of the road to the state, adding that while the operation on the project is ruptured, ENL continues to spend money on security on protect its equipment that is still on site.
“The company has suffered lots of embarrassment; we are still paying for security because our equipment is still on site. The governor’s action is detrimental to the development of the state because those working on the project are locals and he has rendered them jobless. We want to emphasise that this lawlessness will not be allowed to pass and that is why we have warned the new contractors that government is a continuum and this administration cannot be vindictive in its actions.
He has stalled progress on that project or the past eight months and refused our demands; we did not demand for money because it is a PPP project and is contractor financed, what we requested was for a letter of consent that the company will be allowed to continue with the project, he first promised and then reneged for no just cause than the fact that it was commissioned by his predecessor.
“We are not allowing this to slide; the project should not be made to suffer for personal reasons. He did the same to the Akobo way which Ajimobi awarded to us, though that was government financed, we were on site laying asphalt the day it was revoked and we still have about N225m outstanding to collect. The governor must face the art and science of governance and stop unnecessary battles. We will handle this through the instrumentality of the law and this will begin soon because we have been libeled as a company,” ENL said.
ENL added that “we have warned the new contractor, Messrs SEL-Vydra Consortium (incorporating Still Earth Capital Finance Limited and Vydra Investment Limited), a company that was just registered in May, which was awarded the contract that is still legitimately awarded to ENL Consortium Limited. And those ones now awarded the contract to Peculiar Ultimate Concerns Limited as the contractor of the project in spite of the continued validity of ENL’s concession rights in furtherance of the concession agreement to beware because any attempt to break the law will be resisted by ENL.
“The governor said in re-awarding the contract, he saved N100bn for the state. How did he arrive at this calculation for a contract that was awarded in 2017 when a bag of cement was sold for N2500 and iron rod was sold at 180, 000 per tonnes now that iron road goes for between N360, 000 to N400, 000. Do you have your own iron road or cement company. This is just political gimmick to frustrate the project and hoodwink the good people of Oyo state. How will a governor that said he saved N100bn from re-awarding a contract now ask the state assembly for loan approval for same project?” ENL queried.
