Ecology office condemns delayed dredging of Lagos channels
By Mercy Omoike
The Ecology Project Office (EPO) has condemned the delayed dredging and channelisation of the Tejuosho/ Canal railway projects in Lagos State.
The Permanent Secretary of the EPO, Malam Shehu Ibrahim, expressed dissatisfaction over the delayed progress of the project on Wednesday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the EPO under the auspices of Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) was on a site inspection of project interventions.
The dredging of the Tejuosho/Canal Railway is part of the efforts of the EPO on flood control and soil erosion prevention during the rainy season.
“This is the essence of the physical on-the-site inspection to be engaged by the ecological project office.
“As you can observe, the progress of this project is slow; we have already summoned the contractor to the office to explain to us the reason for this delay.
“The quality of the work is poor and as you can observe, looking at the situation alone everything is unkempt nothing is even going on here.
“When the contractor comes to the office, we will sit down with him and have proper discussion on the way forward to keep this project going.
“This delay has definitely slowed down our intervention efforts to prevent flooding across the country because this project should have been completed by now.
“This project should have been done even before the rain starts, we are already in February and maybe before March the rains will begin and further slow down the project.
So, much time has been wasted,” Ibrahim said.
He, however, disclosed that appropriate sanctions would be meted out on the contractors for the delay in the execution of the project.
“This is a project that was awarded two years or three years ago and they were supposed to have completed it within a year.
“Now, it is more than three years and the level of completion is not even up to 25 per cent.
“This is an eye opener for us and we will intensify our efforts in inspecting and monitoring interventions being sponsored by the Ecology Project Office across the country.
“I think because they observed that we were coming for inspection, they were able to upscale some of the work but that is not what should have been done.
“This drainage channelling is meant to ameliorate flooding incidents across this area, especially in Tejuosho, Bode Thomas and the Surulere axis.
“There will definitely be sanctions on the contractors for the delay and the small slow progress of this project,” Ibrahim said. (NAN) www.nannews.ng
Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
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