Commissioner has 24 hours to start road project or face dismissal, says Wike

According to Wike, the commissioner has 24 hours to start the road project or face dismissal.

If they see delayed progress on the project, the residents of Abua/Odual were asked by the governor of Rivers to “shout” and “cry” on social media.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has threatened to fire his commissioner for works, George-Kelly Alabo, over the ongoing road construction project in Abua/Odual LGA.

On Friday, Wike flagged off work on the Ekagho-Ogboloma-Adada Link Road in the state and gave the commissioner a 24-hour deadline.

The governor interrupted his speech midway to ask for the Lubrik Construction Company’s representative. However, he was told that the aforementioned woman had gone after addressing the gathering.

Why have they not mobilised to Abua? Wike demanded, turning to an official off-camera who was probably his commissioner of works. Why have they not mobilised if they have collected the funds and collected [for the roads] here?

The governor asked, “What are preliminary works?”  to which the government official replied inaudibly. Did they initially collect our money? Call the business right now! Bring them here, please.

The governor questioned why the company had not “moved to a site on the other road in Abua” after receiving funding from the state government when a man of South Asian heritage stood before him.

The unnamed contractor responded, “Soon we will start moving to that place.”

“Commissioner for Works, you have 24 hours to respond.” To applause from the people of Ekagho in Rivers State, he remarked, “Return our money right away if they don’t move the site.”

“As you can see, the corporation is only a small portion of the issue; this is why we have a problem.” Even the people in charge of overseeing the work are contributing to our difficulties.

“You’re telling us that this company is preparing after [taking] money from us, yet the money was gathered more than two months ago. I will fire you as the Commissioner of Works if they start working on the site before tomorrow.

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Wike claims that the reason for the postponement is without merit.

You shouldn’t take our money, deposit it in a bank, and then run your other businesses while the people suffer. The rains will begin in March before you know it, and you’ll say to us, “Because of the rain…” when they do. “It’s impossible,” he said.

In order to catch his attention, the Rivers governor advised the residents of Abua and Odual to “shout” and “cry” on social media if they noticed poor progress on the project.

“And when I do, make sure to let me know.” In fact, chairman of council, you must be providing me with monthly updates on what is happening on these two roads in Abua and Odual. “I don’t want to rely solely on Ministry of Works reports,” he declared.

In fact, I will name someone to serve as my special assistant on these two highways right away so that we can keep an eye on what the Ministry of Works is doing.

Since I’m no longer confident that a company would receive money for two months and the commissioner is telling me they are preparing, I keep an eye on what they are doing as they provide me with their own report. This is just unbelievable. When your folks leave, you work along with them.