Lalong Legacy Projects: Reason Why Government Revoked Contract With BLENESON Revealed

The Sub-Contractors Forum of the Lalong Legacy Projects said the main Contractor was sacked by the Plateau State Government for not meeting up with the dateline given, non payment of Subcontractors, among other issues.

They also appeal to those commenting on the sacking of the main contractor to cross check their facts before going public about information they are not sure of.

The Forum disclosed this through its Secretary, Morgan M. Peter, in a press statement made available to journalists in Jos, the State Capital.

It reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a press release on the 21st March, 2021 by one Mr. John T. Akans.

“Looking at the press release carefully between the lines, we understand that, politics has now creped in and of course, one will be quick to judge that the writer is scouting for cheap political gains, we strongly advice against that, because it can be antagonistic for meaningful development.

The Forum maintained that, “We would have expected that in as much as the writer had the good intention of educating the public, a better way should have been sought for.

“For instance, the sub-contractors that are stakeholders in this project should have been consulted for better information rather than such haphazard presentation in the press release.

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“To further educate the writer on the interest of the Governor on the laudable project. The Governor initiated a meeting where the main contractor, sub-contractors and Government representatives attended, with a view to clear the grey areas on this project, fortunate enough, the government expressed deep surprise over the delay on the project, despite the huge amount released to the main contractor.

“All stakeholders were pleased with the outcome of the meeting and hoped for a better approach to move the project forward, unfortunately, the ugly reason of non payment by the main contractor for the delayance resurfaced, despite the assurances he made to the Governor to make amends”, the Forum explained.

“We are however informed by the press release that litigation has creped into the entire project arrangement. We as sub- contractors feel sad about this, as our resources will be tight down for a project we were convinced will last for 18 months”, the Forum lamented.

“It will interest the writer to know that the contract was conceived by the main contractor on a milestone approach, which automatically relieved the main contractor as investor but rather remotely shifted the responsibility to the sub-contractors.

“Whatever the position the Lalong Legacy Projects (LLP) has found itself in now, we believe that the Governor as the father of the state and a progressive individual as he is, had to take a stand to save the project from total collapse, more so to be fair to the sub-contractors that had invested huge sums in the project.

“It will be of interest to know that a lot of sub-contractors have not been paid for months as base on the earlier agreement with the main contractor to make payment after 14 days of completion of milestone.

The Forum advised anyone commenting on such sensitive issues, should exhibit maturity in their presentation, adding that doing so will help cushion the negative impact on stakeholders.

“We appeal that the client (Government of Plateau State) neglect such negativity as expressed by the writer of such press release and forge ahead with the good intention he has for the state”.

It would be recalled that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, had issued a press statement on the aforementioned date through its Publicity Secretary, John Akans, accusing the State Government of sacking the main Contractor (Bleneson Service Nigeria Limited), because he refused to give some certain percentage of the contractual funds to some top government officials.