Following the termination of the first phase of Ibadan circular road contract by Governor Seyi Makinde-led Oyo State Government, the affected company, ENL Consortium Ltd, has threatened to seek justice at a London Arbitration Court if the government fails to pay N10billion compensation.
The Chairman of the company, Prince Adesuyi Haastrup, made the disclosure during an interview with journalists in Ibadan on Thursday, putting the total liability to the state government at N10.6 billion.
According to Haastrup, the figure included N3.9 billion already expended on the project and N6.7 billion penalty being 10 per cent of the total contract sum in case of such termination.
He noted that the terms are clearly stated in the contract signed by both parties in 2017, insisting that his firm would remain on site until the sum is paid.
The contract was for a 32-kilometre road starting near the First Technical University on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and terminating at Badeku village on the Ibadan-Ife expressway.
The road was designed as a bypass for travellers from Lagos passing through Ibadan to other parts of the country through Ibadan-Ife Road.
It was awarded by the late governor Abiola Ajimobi in 2007 for a sum of N67 billion on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis for 25 years.
The state government did not incur any cost on the project. But due to the slow pace of work on the road, Makinde, who succeeded Ajimobi in 2019, terminated the contract.
He had visited the project site in late 2019 during which he directed the contractor to stop work.
He said that the government had invested billions of naira on the road project but without a commensurate work achieved by ENL Ltd.
But after he realised that the government did not commit any fund to the project, he allowed the firm to continue with its work but with the condition that it must deliver in six months.
After one year of work on the project, Governor Makinde terminated the contract in March. He announced that there were better firms that could deliver at the agreed length of time. The government has already advertised the job.
But Haastrup said his form would not leave the site until the government meets the terms of the agreement which includes offsetting the N3.9 billion spent on the project and the N6.7 billion penalty for terminating the contract.
