They normally feed their narrow minded followers that because an infrastructure hadn’t received attention under previous administrations, it nolonger does matter how much was written-off to fix it. Thus, making overinflation of contracts the new normal.
This particular inference was drawn from the PortHarcout road N36.5 billion “ufu”, which was said to have been used on a mere 5.7 kilometer trunkB road, making it the most expensive road in Africa by any standard. Whereas same contractor did a more difficult road of 37-kilometers in swampy Rivers State with bridges and double lane for N31 billion.
As we celebrate and congratulate the Abia government under Mr. Alex Otti for the rehabilitation of the historical Omenuka bridge of 45 metres length and 8 metres width, we must not fail to interrogate the cost the government claimed to have used on the repair job. It is also worthy to note that the original design was altered and a single lane bridge was finally delivered.
While we thank Otti for the job, President Tinubu also gets credit for his reforms that catapulted Abia’s total revenue for the Q4 2025 to N60 billion monthly. The federal Ministry of Works, gets some credit as well.
However, records derived from the budget performance reports show a very disturbing amount suspected to have been spent on the said Omenuka bridge. Whereas the project was initially awarded to Setraco in 2015 at N1.6 billion, and later reviewed in 2023 due to exchange rate variations to about N4.7 billion, the final cost said to have been spent on the renovation hovers around N28 billion.
Since it is the policy of this Abia government to shroud every financial transaction in top secrecy, their own budget reports become the veritable window to pry into how our monies are being spent on projects. It is therefore deeply disturbing that the report sieved out from the government’s own expenditure records put the said Omenuka Bridge repair cost at about N28 billion, shockingly pushing it to about 300% hike from the last variation cost.
While our team of financial experts are on espionage, digging deep to unearth all hidden facts of this particular project, the initial reports showed that the state’s notoriety in over exaggeration of contract costs isn’t abating anytime soon. The PortHarcout road, Ohanku and Obohia roads, just to mention a few are associated with inflated project costs.
I therefore, implore the Federal Ministry of Works to investigate the actual cost of this project, especially as the Federal Government is expected to reimburse the state.
EFCC, ICPC and other sister agencies, oya make una carry una kaya to torchlight wetin really happen with respect to cost.
Keeping it honest.
@ORACLE.
