BEFORE BENUE ASSEMBLY HOSTS WORKS COMMISSIONER, ONE OTHER
By Nathaniel Ikyur
Barring any last minute change of plans, the 10th Benue State House of Assembly will play host to two key appointees in the Governor Hyacinth Alia government in plenary today. They are Hon Imojime Tiza, Commissioner for Works, Housing and Urban Development as well as the DG, Bureau of Infrastructure. They are to shed light on budget allocations on road construction in the State capital and why it is so high.
A few days ago, the Chief Press Secretary of the State Governor, Tersoo Kula, issued a statement after the State EXCO’s 4th meeting for 2025. He announced the approval of some capital projects in the State. Among these projects are the 13km rehabilitation of the Wurukum to Air Force Base dualisation. The cost is put at: 68,329,287,647.57. The statement said the contract includes a 5 span bridge at Mu.
Interestingly, this particular capital project is not captured in the 2025 Appropriation Act passed by the Benue State House of Assembly.
There is also what they call an “upgrade” of the Mbawuar-Bako Negher and Spur to Mbaakon. In the Press Statement, the State EXCO approved the sum of 73,920,604,234.52 for this 34km road. Documents of the 2025 Appropriation Act passed by the State Assembly shows that the amount earmarked for this particular project in the 2025 is roughly around 11.5bn. According to the approved budget estimates, the sum of 9.021bn has already been paid between January and September 2024 to the contractor. Interestingly, these two projects, like the Underpass/Interchange in Makurdi and Gboko are handled by Bahaus Global Investment Nig Ltd and will gulp the sum of 142,249,891,882.09 billion. This is an unimaginable capital flight out of Benue State.
But I loved the high pitch tone in the debate by the Assembly members on this particular matter. They sounded ‘tough’ but how far they’ll be to checkmate the executive is left to be seen.
The question is: how did the executive branch award the Wurukum to Air Force Base dualisation contract not captured in the Appropriation Act as passed by the State Assembly? Was this expenditure captured by a Supplementary budget we are not aware of?
Secondly, why is the budget figure for the 34km, Mbawuar-Bako Negher Spur to Mbaakon road different from the sum released to the Media by the Governor’s spokesperson?
The Assembly should therefore ask more questions and ascertain if the public procurement law is being followed diligently. And if there are areas seen to be violating the public procurement Act, the Assembly should apply the appropriate sanctions to curb the excesses of the Executive. For in doing so, they’ll be helping to checkmate the executive recklessness.
- Ikyur writes for #thenewsroom
