The Federal Government has given the Benin-Asaba Expressway Concession Company (BAECC) three options to enable it to continue with the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha highway project.
The first phase of the 10-lane highway was scheduled for completion in March 2027. However, 16 months after construction began, motorists have continued to endure difficult conditions along the route.
The situation recently worsened as motorists, including heavy-duty vehicle operators, became stranded on the road for five days before individuals intervened by filling some sections with stones.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, presented three options to BAECC at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Edo State Government House in Benin City.
Umahi said he had assembled three reputable contractors who were ready to take over the construction of the highway if BAECC accepted the terms.
Under the first option, he said BAECC could write to terminate the contract and subsequently be granted the right of first refusal to toll the road after the Federal Government completes the construction.
According to him, the arrangement would enable the company to recover whatever it had already spent on the project.
The second option, he said, was to terminate the contract on the basis of an agreed existing dispute, with all relevant stakeholders duly informed.
Under the third option, Umahi said BAECC could introduce a contractor already operating in Nigeria to undertake the construction, while the Federal Government would handle the design and supervision of the project.
He said under the arrangement, BAECC would retain the right to toll the road and receive 70 per cent of the revenue, while the Federal Government would take the remaining 30 per cent.
Describing the three options as a generous offer to BAECC, Umahi said, ‘We are available for trouble.’
‘This is a generous offer. If the public sues us and sues you, the court will now determine our fate. Road construction is not content creation. It is not something you engaged in smartly.
‘By the concession agreement, we played into the hands of the Concessionaire. Every decision we make has implications. It is up to the Concessionaire to lower his pride. He is a young man speaking arrogantly before his elders.
‘I will ask that you (BAECC CEO) be removed from the site. YOU add no value to the project. The Independent Engineers will take measurements of all works done, excluding negative work. We want to plead: we do not see you having the capacity to fix the road. Allow the Ministry of Works to bring in competent contractors. You have no technical capacity. It is a highly technical job. It will require committed personnel. Give us written approval to do this.
‘You cannot avert public disorder. We have not asked you out of site. Remove all unprofessional staff from site. A dispute has existed; we will be writing to reinstate all removed asphalt at the client’s cost. Remove water directed to the carriageway. Restore free flow of traffic. Remove the Project Director whose qualifications are in doubt. Show us technical competence and proof of roads done before. Remove dust used in the name of stone base. You are to provide technical design for storm water channelisation.’
Umahi also listed areas where BAECC defaulted, including an inability to heed instructions from Independent Engineers, refusal to remove unqualified personnel, intentional destruction of national assets, lack of equipment and incompetent engineers, lack of knowledge of road construction, creating public disorder, and abandoning the site without notice to contractors.
Governor Monday Okpebholo said he felt terrible about the state of the road.
‘What we are seeing now is not what we are supposed to be seeing after 16 months. You cannot give what you do not have.
If they were competent, we should have seen part of this road completed. Do the needful. Edo people are watching. Something has to be done between now and Christmas. I believe in what people will see. You cannot make a profit where you are not working. There has to be a laid-down principle.’
Head of Legal at BAECC, Peterson Okponam Fabian, described the FG’s options as friendly and collaborative.
Fabian asked for more time to engage, saying there would be no reason for investors’ funds to be eroded.
‘I believe that everything that is being discussed here is not conclusive in itself. We will have a more robust, collaborative way of handling things going forward.
‘Every stakeholder here, allow us more time to engage. I believe that we will have more pathways forward to further collaborate,’ he said.