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Why We
Abandoned N79.2b
Road Contract, By Julius Berger
The management of Julius Berger
Nigeria (JBN) Plc yesterday gave explained how militants
forced the company to abandon a N79.2 billion road
contract in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The dualisation of the East-West Highway in Rivers and
Bayelsa states, specifically from Port Harcourt (Onne
junction) to Kaiama in Bayelsa State, was awarded in
2006 to Julius Berger at N79.2b.
The General Manager, Technical Service of Julius Berger,
Mr. D.Dubase, who appeared before the House of
Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, in company of
other senior members of the staff, told the committee
that security reasons, especially incessant abduction of
expatriate workers, forced them to close shop.
Dubase said the construction giant would not return to
site "until we are sure that we will no longer use
bullet-proof cars on site, and until we no longer need
soldiers to protect our staff."
He said: "A situation where you have 15 armed criminals
(militants) before you and you have 23 Joint Task Force
(JTF) soldiers behind you. The criminals did not care
about their lives. They shot and killed three soldiers
and wounded others and went ahead to abduct two
expatriates. What do you do in such situation? We will
return to site when we are free and when we stop
receiving threats of abduction."
Dubase lamented that the company had been spending N30
million monthly on security since the contract was
awarded. This, he said, amounted to over N450 million.
He said the company mobilised to site in March 2007
after two expatriates were abducted at the end of 2006.
He said mobilisation was stopped on May 23, 2007, due to
security reasons.
The company resumed work on September 4, 2007.
He said: "In April 2008, there was another abduction of
one expatriate JBN staff at the site East-West Highway.
The site incurs a security cost of about N30 million per
month since the inception of work. The total amount of
security cost about N450 million to date."
The JBN manager said after the abduction of another two
expatriate workers, "on July 11, Julius Berger was
forced to close down the site and demobilise."
The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Olaka Nwogu, said
the meeting was an interactive and fact-finding session
for members to know what JBN was doing in the Niger
Delta.
Members, however, appealed to the company to consider
returning to site.
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