Dave Umahi, the minister of works has
threatened to flush out elements within the ministry who have been conniving with contractors to frustrate the government’s efforts at development.
Umahi, who stated this on Tuesday, while addressing the newsmen after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, noted that he would employ the services of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to prosecute the affected officials.
The minister, who had alleged a hang-up against him by some major contractors on the plan of the federal government to adopt as a policy the use of concrete reinforcement for the construction of roads across the country, however, announced that he now has President Tinubu’s backing for the adoption of the new policy.
“There are some elements within that are also fighting me, who are also benefiting from the system and that is the greatest problem we have and I just pretended. I will flush those elements out and send them to ICPC to handle them because nobody can hold this country to ransom”, he said.
He, however, added that some have keyed into the policy just as major cement producers have agreed to discount prices for such government road builders.
He also highlighted the advantages of cement roads over asphalt/bitumen, including cheaper costs and the need to encourage local production of cement against the importation of bitumen.
Umahi further warned contractors against the dodgy attitude of securing about 20 projects but ended up deploying as few as two units of equipment to the site.
