Gov Lalong
Bleneson Services Nig Ltd, the company handling the Lalong Legacy Projects has rejected the decision of the Plateau State Government to revoke the contract and re-award it to a new contractor.
The Managing Director of the firm, Engr. Lawson Ngoa, who made this known in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Jos, stressed that the government’s move was illegal.
It would be recalled that the State Executive Council recently approved and re-awarded the contract to Mssrs United Integrated Construction Company at the sum of N26.6 billion with a completion period of 32 weeks.
The state government claimed that it had terminated the contract from Bleneson over imcompetency and failure to complete the job within stipulated time, hence the decision to reaward the contract.
But Ngoa said that the project could not be re-awarded to a new contractor, owing to the pending litigation on the contract.
“There is an ongoing litigation between the state government and our company and also between us and other sub-contractors, as such it is not possible for the same projects to be re-awarded to a new company,”he said.
He further faulted government’s claims that the contract had been terminated on the grounds of non-performance, adding that even Gov Lalong had at several fora said that the projects were 70 per cent completed.
“If we have done 70 per cent like he had said, what then will stop us from completing the projects?
“We don’t need to compound this issue by bringing in another contractor when the main contractor is still alive, and the case is still before the court of law.
”Bringing in a new contractor will amount to more litigation, and the more we go into litigation the more the projects will remain uncompleted.
“This case is before the court of law and we have not been paid a dime by anyone, neither has anyone been sent to us nor approached us for settlement.
“Besides, there is no consent agreement reached between us and the state government throughout the one year that the case has been in court,” he said
Ngoa explained that government had earlier issued him with a notice of termination of contract, to which he responded by challenging the decision in court to stop the move.
He explained that the case was struck out over some technicalities, but maintained that his company had since filed an appeal.
”On March 16, we instituted a suit seeking to restrain government from terminating the contract and this was after it issued a 30-day ”Notice of Termination” to us on March 9, following what it claimed to be failure of the company to deliver a phase of the project.
”The then Chief Judge of the state, Justice Yakubu Dakwak, who presided over the case struck out the matter after it held that there was a failure of mandatory steps that were not taken by the defendants as required by the law which robbed the court of jurisdiction to handle the matter.
”But we have since filed an appeal and awaiting the verdict of the court”, he explained
The company’s managing director said that it would excite him to see that the legacy projects were completed, particularly because it would be in the overall interest of the citizens,but insisted that the right thing must be done.
Responding, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dan Manjang, said that government was acting on the rule of law, insisting that there was already a court ruling on the matter.
The so-called legacy projects numbering 22 in all, comprise of hospitals, secondary and primary schools spread across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state.
