Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde, has said that his administration will complete the 32-kilometre stretch, First Phase of Ibadan Circular Road, before the end of his tenure on May 28, 2023.

The governor, who stated this during a tour of the project, said that his administration had to sack the contractor inherited from the previous administration due to unsatisfactory slow pace of work.

According to him, the contractor would be unable to deliver the road in another 20 years if allowed to continue at the slow pace.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Taiwo Adisa, stated that the governor, however, promised to pay the sacked contractor for evaluated work done.

As at the time of the governor made the on-the-spot assessment, according to Adisa only two kilometres of the 32-kilometre road had been tarred at the level of wearing cost by ENL Consortium Construction company.

“We have terminated the initial arrangement. This is the road that we think will change the economy of Oyo State substantially but the previous contractor, if we had continue with their pace, maybe they may finish in another 20 years”, the governor said.

Makinde noted that the government has been asking the contractor to do joint valuation because his administration does not want to destroy anyone’s business, adding that the government will ensure that the contractor is reimbursed when the evaluation is completed.

He added: “Now, we are asking them to do joint valuation because we are not here to destroy anyone’s business. Of course, money has been spent and we have to ensure that whatever has been put into to this, we will reimburse the previous contractor.

“So, we have an appreciation of what we need to do to ensure that this kicks off almost immediately and then it can meet our target.”

He added that his administration will make sure that the road is completed and delivered within his tenure, adding that the road will be concessioned but government will have some involvement in it.

“This 32km portion must be delivered within this first tenure of this administration. We are still going to concession it, because the previous administration left it 100 per cent to the concessionaire, which we thought was a mistake.

“We definitely will have some form of involvement of the Oyo State Government with a new concessionaire. We will take certain percentage for Oyo State Government and, that way, the government is carried along every step of the way”.

While speaking on the Old Ife/Airport/Sawmill Road, the governor said the contractor has just revised his schedule and that the job will be completed in October 2021.

He declared that his government will continually inspect and push contractors hard on infrastructure projects.

“They (the contractors) just revised their schedule and that job should be completed and delivered by October of this year. So, we will stay on their back and ensure it is delivered as scheduled”, he added.

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The state’s commissioner for Works and Transport, Prof. Dahud Sangodoyin visited the construction site to restate the government’s stance. He urged the contractor to evacuate the construction site as its services were no longer needed, as reflected in the disengagement letter.

The commissioner, who spoke with newsmen after the visit to the site, said the consortium’s contract was terminated after the progress of work was highly unsatisfactory within the timeframe of the contract.

Ongoing Ibadan Circular Road Project

According to a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatunbosun, on Thursday, the 32.2km road was awarded in May 2017, while construction commenced in September 2017 and was scheduled to be completed by 18th March, 2019 before the official contract termination order.

Sangodoyin maintained that the work completed was below 10% after over three years of award and over one year after expected day of completion.

The Commissioner noted that the project was valuable to the state economically and infrastructurally and would be re-awarded to a competent contractor who he said would deliver value and work within the terms of agreement and time frame of contract.

“The circular road is part of the development agenda of governor Makinde, so we won’t abandon it but we have terminated the contract with the contractor on the job and we are going to open another phase to award to a competent contractor,” he said.

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The Governor, in issuing the fresh order, said that the decision came after a review meeting held between officials of the state government and the ENL Consortium.

He has, therefore, given a May 2020 deadline to the company to deliver the project in line with the original three-year contract.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted the Governor as saying that despite the fact that the first instinct would have been to revoke the contract based on the inexplicable slow pace of work and a number of identifiable irregularities, he would want the company to deliver the contract in line with the original contract they signed in 2017.

The statement cautioned political interests who are jumping into the fray of arguments on the 32-kilometre road contract to desist from playing to the gallery just in an attempt to get counted as ‘opposition voices.’

“Opposition in a democracy is meant to be constructive and reasonable and not a set of characters that defend underhand dealings and shady activities.

“A number of issues don’t look straight on the Ibadan Circular Road Project, ranging from the cost of the contract to the capacity of the consortium and eventual value for money realities.

“It is preposterous for any political party or group to jump at such a critical issue without being abreast of the facts of the matter and by merely trying to play to the card of unbridled opposition.

“Governor Seyi Makinde has, therefore, given the ENL Consortium, the go-ahead to complete the project by May 2020 as specified in the contractual agreement it signed with Oyo State Government,” the statement reads.

The decision to rescind the stop work order came on the heels of a follow-up meeting at the State Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan shortly after the Governor conducted an inspection tour of the project.

The statement added,  “The Ibadan Circular Road Project is a 32-kilometre road contract awarded by the immediate past administration under a Build Operate and Transfer concessionaire arrangement at the cost of N67 billion.

“However, discoveries by the incumbent administration in Oyo State have confirmed that besides the extremely slow pace of work on the contract which meant that only 5.5 percent of work had been done in two and a half years, sections of the cost quoted may be apparently unjustifiable.

“For instance, documents at the disposal of Oyo State Government indicate that the ENL Consortium originally quoted N14 billion as the contract sum, whereas the former government went ahead to sign the contract at N67 billion.

“Again, the sum of 11 billion is being quoted for clearance of the bush on the 32-kilometre stretch of the road, while the same consortium is claiming to have spent the sum of N5 billion on some four or five culverts

“Governor Makinde considers the project to be very strategic to the economic expansion agenda of his Government, and therefore ordered that since the consortium now claims to now have the required funding, they could as well deliver the project by May 2020, in line with the contract they signed in 2017.

“The decision to allow the consortium run out its contract through was informed by the need not to plunge the State into needless legal battles and thereby cause encumbrances that can hinder the development of the State.

“The State government is ready to hold ENL Consortium to its words and the dictates of the contractual agreement on the road. It is expected that the Consortium would put in place all things necessary to ensure it delivers on the terms of the all-important contract”

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Mega Icon Magazine gathered that the first phase of the project will be a four-lane, dual carriage motorway spanning a length of 35km from the existing expressway.

The circular road is expected to run through Ibadan, the state capital, pointing out that the first phase of 80 kilometres will start from Akilapa on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to Egbeda on Ibadan-Ife Expressway, while the second phase will commence from Egbeda and run through Akinyele to Iddo and back to Akilapa.

The governor, who said the road as a developmental project that will take the state to a higher level of development and place it at par with other developed cities of the world, also disclosed that necessary legal backing had been accorded the project.

He stressed further that in tandem with his administration’s agenda to transform Oyo into a modern state, the government signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the road through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with ENL Consortium Limited.

“The circular road, when completed, is expected to ease intra and inter-city traffic congestion, especially for Ibadan which is fast becoming an industrialized city under the current administration.

“The circular road will serve as a bye pass for inter-city traffic on routes outside Ibadan, while it will open a new economic corridor for controlled development in line with the Ibadan Master Plan.’’

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