Dangote Sacks Road Contractors Employed by Ibru on Apapa Expressway

By ZION Olalekan

Front line construction company, AG Dangote has officially kick-started the construction of the Sunrise-Berger axis of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, consequently sending off contractors hitherto employed by tank farm operators under the Committee of Directors (COD), Ibru Complex, Ibafon, Apapa

At the flag-off of the palliative works in February this year, the group’s arrowhead, Olorogun Oscar Ibru, the vice chairman of the Ibru Group, noted that operators at the tank farm as well as other stakeholders around the Ibru complex had come together and raised N222.5 million for the construction of the expressway which includes the main carriageway and feeder roads from Sunrise to Coconut Bus Stop.

Chairman of the COD, Mr. Sabitu Ajadi confirmed to Nigeriamaritime360.com that at the recent award of the construction work to AG Dangote by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the construction company, Segulat Nigerian Limited employed by the COD has been sent off the road project.

Ajadi said, “Definitely it is going to affect our work because the federal government has given AG Dangote a marching order to that place. I discussed with the Director of Works at the Ministry of Works who said that we should quit for them for now and let them do what the federal government has directed them to do.

“So, we have quit the place for them, but we are planning to have a meeting with the director of works and the Port Manager so that we can tell them that if the AG Dangote wants to work on the road, they should use concrete, it should not be, asphalt that will fade quickly. But since it is the federal government that is giving the approval, definitely they would have discussed it before going ahead.

“Our men have vacated the place, the people you see there now are men of AG Dangote” he said

Ajadi said the money gathered by the tank farm operators was for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and that it has been exhausted on the road.

He declared however, that, “Some part of the roads which we have done, they cannot do better than that, they are not touching the areas we have worked on, they are just going to work on the places we have not gotten to.

“If you see them there today they are working under the Sunrise Bridge, they are now moving towards the Berger Bridge”.

Ajadi said the committee had gotten the endorsement of the Federal Ministry of Works and that work commenced on February 14th, 2018 but had been limited by funds even as he acknowledged that contributions were gotten from SIFAX Group, Ibafon Oil, among others.

He lamented that presently, it is difficult to operate the truck call up system because of the dilapidated portion on the expressway.

“If the road is bad, the call-up system will have no effect. If a trailer is supposed to access Tin-Can Island Port within 30 minutes and it is there for 3 to 4 hours, the road will automatically be congested. We are all aware that our revenue since last year has dropped with about 30% to 40%”, he quipped.