Fubara Issues One-Month Ultimatum To Contractor Over Woji–Alesa–Refinery Road Delay

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has issued a one-month ultimatum to Raffoul Nigeria Limited, the company handling the 6.5-kilometre Woji–Aleto–Alesa–Refinery Road project, warning that the contract would be terminated if the firm fails to meet the new deadline.

According to Ireporter Online, Governor Fubara gave the directive on Friday during an unscheduled inspection of the project site, accompanied by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Special Projects, Hebron Wisdom. The governor’s position was later confirmed in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi.

During the visit, Fubara expressed dissatisfaction over what he described as the contractor’s poor performance, despite the several variations approved by his administration to facilitate timely completion of the project, which also includes a 200-metre bridge.

The visibly displeased governor lamented, “This project was awarded in June 2020 by my predecessor. I even gave them two variations to enable them to achieve a good proportion of this job. But to my greatest surprise, there is no progress to show for it.”

He recalled that the project had earlier been reviewed and cancelled under a previous emergency administration, adding that he had granted Raffoul another opportunity to deliver but that the grace period was fast expiring.

Fubara warned that failure to complete the project within the next month would compel his government to revert to the earlier cancellation decision.

In addition, the governor condemned the ongoing dredging activities near the bridge construction site, describing the operation as dangerous and unacceptable.

He questioned, “How can anyone be dredging so close to a bridge? Is that proper? If I come here another time or receive information that dredging is being conducted around this area, I will personally supervise the destruction of the dredger.”

Governor Fubara reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensuring the delivery of quality infrastructure across Rivers State but maintained that non-performing contractors would no longer be tolerated.