File: Minister of Works, David Umahi
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, on Friday ordered the arrest of the Managing Director of Hartland Nigeria Limited over the company’s failure to complete an 11-kilometre section of the Benin-Onitsha Expressway despite receiving about N14bn from the Federal Government.
Umahi gave the order during an on-the-spot inspection of the expressway, expressing anger over the poor state of the road and the contractor’s alleged failure to deliver the work for which it had been paid.
The minister said the government had reached an agreement with Hartland to use the funds to complete the 11km stretch from Summit Junction to a bridge, including channelisation and hydraulic structures, but the contractor had completed only about 40 per cent of the agreed work.
He said, “We paid them up to N14bn and when I paid them that money, we reached an agreement that we were going to finish 11 kilometres from the Summit Junction to this bridge with the money I am paying you, and then do channelisation and hydraulic structures.
