Works Minister Dave Umahi has given contractors on the critical Abuja-Lokoja highway 72 hours to fully mobilize and utilize released funds or face anti-graft prosecution by the EFCC.
Enraged by persistent execution delays and extensive structural decay, the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, has issued an aggressive 72-hour ultimatum to construction firms handling the rehabilitation of the strategic Abuja-Lokoja highway to fully mobilize equipment to the project sites or risk criminal prosecution.
Umahi handed down the uncompromising directive on Tuesday during a high-stakes, on-the-spot joint field assessment of the interstate corridor.
The minister was accompanied by the leadership of the National Assembly Committees on Works, where they unmasked a deep disparity between optimistic office progress reports and the harsh realities of stagnant project sites.
Expressing deep frustration with sluggish operational speeds-specifically referencing GELD Construction Limited’s slow progress on its assigned section-the minister warned that the federal government would no longer tolerate contractors hoarding mobilization advances while motorists suffer hours of gridlock.
“We cannot be pampering contractors. If you are holding the money of the federal government, you have to bring it out and do the job or we start going to the Police and the EFCC,” Umahi declared. “I am giving you 72 hours to effectively deploy on this road, utilize the money, while I am chasing release of the other money the president has graciously signed.”
The minister revealed that the Abuja-bound section of the economic artery has suffered catastrophic structural failure, with more than 90 percent of the critical asphalt stretch completely compromised. He warned that if aggressive, accelerated reconstruction is not sustained before the peak of the rainy season, the vital transport corridor could face total collapse.
Beyond the contractors, Umahi turned his wrath on the ministry’s internal supervising engineers and field controllers. He accused them of gross dereliction of duty, noting that several officials comfortably domiciled in air-conditioned offices had failed to conduct mandatory routine site audits, leaving them entirely unable to answer basic contract parameters during the inspection.
The minister vowed to implement an immediate administrative shake-up, promising to purge and reassign any ministry staffer found incompetent or toothless in holding field contractors accountable.
The minister’s aggressive position received total bipartisan endorsement from the legislative delegation. The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, Honorable Akin Alabi, stated that successful project delivery requires strict synergy between contractors, supervisors, and funding institutions. Alabi lamented that the reports reaching the executive hierarchy were intentionally decoupled from the true state of the highways.
Concurrently, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works urged federal financing agencies-including the NNPCL under its Tax Credit Scheme-to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks and accelerate the disbursement of cleared cash lines to performing contractors.
Reaffirming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is making immense sacrifices to finance regional connectivity, the joint monitoring team concluded that the era of abandoned or slow-walked public works is permanently over, stating that Nigerians demand immediate visible results over administrative excuses.
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