BY SUNDAY EGEDE
Delta State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, yesterday said it had become very unattractive for contractors to sell their projects because of the 40 per cent mobilisation paid for most newly awarded projects in the state.
Aniagwu,who made the disclosure while speaking on “Politics HQ” on News Central Television, monitored in Asaba, said Delta State ranks very high in standard of living among committee of states in the country.
He said the state achieved all these feat without borrowing a penny since the Oborevwori administration came on board.
“We have also, made it clear that we are solvent and that we are financing our projects without resorting to borrowing. Today, as I speak to you, you can fact-check me, Delta is the only state where every contract we are awarding, we are making available 40 per cent mobilization.
“The reason why we are doing it is because we don’t want to have excuse of cost of funds or maybe one bank disappointing a contractor.
“That is why it is even difficult these days to have anybody who wants to say he wants to sell his project, because government makes the funds available for you to execute those projects. “The reason why Oborevwori is going that way is because we are seeing the dangers of continuous review, upward review of projects on account of fluctuation and the value of our currency, which invariably have also triggered some form of inflationary trend along the line of the cost and the rate of items,” he said.
Aniagwu further said, “To avoid that, we ensure the contractor has funds and for him to be able to proceed with it and so we are now seeing where contractors are able to execute contracts in less than three months, rather than having to stay for three years for just two or three kilometers of road.
“So, the governor was very clear on the fact that our brother, the former Deputy President of the Senate, had demonstrated ignorance when he made that speech.
“Can you imagine somebody comparing some flyovers of about two span or three span in some other states to a flyover of about 10 span?
“You have it in that order about three to 10 and you are comparing it to one. We also have expansion of the roads that you have about four lanes on each side.
“It means we are building a road, the dual carriage, that have eight lanes. So, when you want to make your comparison, you should first of all be sure that the material facts that you are putting on ground are the same.
“Otherwise, you cannot just say, how can you spend this amount of money for three flyovers? That is the height of ignorance.
“We are happy that our people have been able to respond by what I told you earlier when they said Sheriff is showing workings not chorchorchor.” On rumours of a possible move away from the PDP by Governor Oborevwori, Aniagwu once again debunked the rumourssaying, “Oborevwori is very busy with governance. Those who are coming up with those stories, they should tell us that they are in love with the performance of our governor.
“As such, they want to tell stories that will either fuel their aims. We don’t want to get involved in some of these political talks.
“The governor at the moment is very much concerned about the promises he made to the people and he is delivering on them.
“What we are doing now is concentrating on our projects. We don’t want to get involved in all those distractions of where individuals are talking about shifting to another place.
“The man is concentrating on governance and that is what he is doing at the moment. He has always been a PDP member, he is a PDP governor, elected on the platform of the PDP, and at the moment he is also very much a PDP governor, and a good one at that.
“People in the communities have already responded, our brothers and sisters in Warri have said it that ‘Sheriff is showing workings nor be chorchorchor’ which means he is not just talking here and there, the governor is working and the people are seeing it in very practical terms.” he stated.
