Reports
N96bn Akure-Ado Dual Carriageway Vanishes: FG Delivers Single Lane as Contractors Disappear – Ojudu
By Joseph Sunday
The Akure-Ado-Ekiti road project, once celebrated as a major breakthrough for Ondo and Ekiti States, is now mired in controversy over alleged abandonment and alteration of its original scope.
Former Senator Babafemi Ojudu raised the alarm in a post on his Facebook page, questioning why a road contract awarded and celebrated as a full dual carriageway appears to have been delivered as a single rehabilitated carriageway.
According to Ojudu, there was widespread excitement when the contract for the reconstruction and dualisation of the critical interstate highway was awarded. The optimism grew when contractors mobilised to site, cleared a corridor for the second lane and commenced construction of bridges and other structures designed for a dual carriageway.
That momentum, however, appears to have stalled.
“What has ultimately been delivered? One rehabilitated carriageway,” Ojudu wrote. “The heavy equipment has disappeared, the construction sites have gone quiet, and the proposed second carriageway appears to have been abandoned.”
He noted that the site still has bridges and earthworks built to accommodate two carriageways, but only one carriageway is currently in use.
Tracing the history of the project, Ojudu recalled that the original contract, valued at about N30 billion and awarded to Dantata & Sawoe in November 2019, was later cancelled. It was subsequently re-awarded by the Federal Executive Council on March 29, 2023, as a 50-kilometre dualisation project for approximately N95.98 billion.
Under the re-award, the Akure-Ondo State boundary section was contracted to Samchase Nigeria Limited and Horizon Construction Company Limited at N46,684,481,745.44 with a 24-month completion timeline, while the section from the Ekiti State boundary to Ado-Ekiti was awarded to Kopek Construction Limited at N49,295,088,593.98 with a 30-month timeline. The project was flagged off in May 2023.
Ojudu has now called on the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, to clarify the status of the project.
He posed seven key questions:
1. Whether the dual carriageway contract was officially revised to a single carriageway.
2. Who authorised such a change and when.
3. Whether the contract sum was reviewed and how much has been paid to each contractor.
4. Why bridges were constructed for a dual carriageway if only one lane was intended.
5. Whether the contractors have formally withdrawn from site.
6. What percentage of work has been completed.
7. When work on the second carriageway will resume.
“This road is too important to the economic and social life of Ondo and Ekiti states to disappear into the familiar fog of abandoned contracts, altered specifications and official silence,” he said, insisting that a refurbished single carriageway cannot be quietly substituted for a dual carriageway worth nearly N96 billion without public explanation.
He demanded full disclosure on what was awarded, what has been paid for, what has been delivered, and what became of the rest of the project.
