FG Orders Benue Billionaire, Ochacho To Stop Voluntary Road Rehabilitation In Makurdi

The Ministry of Works and Housing has accused Benue billionaire and founder of  Ochacho Foundation, King Mohammed Adah, of causing serious distortion to dualisation of Otukpo Town after the billionaire embarked on the road project.

The Ministry through its Field Headquarters, Federal Secretariat Makurdi queried the road project which was undertaken by the businessman on October 21 last year.

The Ministry described the project as illegal in a letter sent to Ochacho, which was titled, ‘Unlawful Act being perpetrated by a Non-Governmental Organsation, Ochacho Foundation  found to be working on the subsisting contract on the dualisation of Otukpo Township Road, in Benue State Awarded to Messrs Rockbridge Nigeria Limited.’

The ministry claimed that the contract No 6259 was awarded to a contractor for the dualisation of the road.

Findings  reveals that the road project, valued at N9.99bn was awarded on December 11, 2014 with the commencement date of January 24, 2015.

A document obtained from the Works Ministry revealed that the Otukpo Township Road in Benue state is a 39km road that stretches to Enugu Round About.

The document revealed that the project was supposed to be delivered on July 23, 2017.

By April 2017, the document revealed that the project was only at 5.61 per cent completion level.

As of that date, only N1.49bn was certified for the project, while N350m was disbursed, the document revealed.

The Federal Controller of Works in Benue state, Engr. Celestine Shausu had said in 2018 that the project was eight per cent complete.

The project was abandoned for years until the Ochacho Foundation commenced work on the site.

But in a letter dated December 13, 2021 which was leaked, the ministry directed the foundation to desist from carrying on with the project.

The ministry said, “Your attention is hereby drawn to the above subject matter in which my Resident Engineer drew my attention to this unethical act by your Foundation on 31 October 2021. I quickly called your Site Engineer Levi on the phone number I collected from my Resident Engineer to stop you from further work with immediate effect.

“I discussed fully on the matter to your Site Engineer Levi as a professional engineer to intimate your Foundation that you cannot start working on a project site that has already been awarded to a Contractor Messrs, Rockbridge Nigeria Limited without full authorization or approval letter by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.

“My Resident Engineer further held a meeting with you on the same to stop you on this illegality being perpetrated by your Foundation which yielded no positive results.

“Your illegal actions on the project site as at now has caused a serious distortion on the Master Plan for the Dualization of Otukpo Township.”