Edo PDP flays govt’s reawarding of hospital contract

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE BENIN—EDO State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that the state government was toying with the lives of the people of the state by re-awarding the contract for the building of the flagship hospital in the state, the Benin Central Hospital, which partially collapsed during construction two years ago. It will be recalled that the Edo State Government had, last week, re-awarded the Central Hospital project to Messrs S & A Construction Company with a contruction period of 12 months. However, the PDP, in a statement, weekend in Benin, by its state Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, challenged the state government to publish the report of the panel that looked into the collapsed hospital building. Orbih said that the state government was creating a future disaster by cutting off a section of the building, instead of complying with the report of the panel which recommended that the entire building be pulled down. He said: “We cannot fold our hands and watch this government endanger the lives of innocent people. The lives of the people are important to us as an important stakeholder. We challenge the Edo State Government to publish the report of the findings of the panel. We will challenge this in court as we will not allow more people to be killed in this project. “The initial sum of the project was N2.7 billion. They later increased it to N3 billion before the disaster. Now, they have come out to say that they have re-awarded it. We ask the state government, how much of the initial sum was paid the old contractor and how much was paid the new contractors?” The party noted that the contracts were being awarded in the state without due process and accountability. He berated the government for embarking on the teachers’ competency test at a time an injunction restraining the state government from conducting the test had been granted by a court.