Ihedioha: Controversy over alleged N50bn stadium, road contracts

Award of 27 stadia by the former governor Emeka Ihedioha administration is presently generating controversy in Imo State as the contract sum, including that of other road projects allegedly running to over N50 billion was said to have been awarded 80 percent mobilisation fee paid.

This is just as the controversial contracts have been abandoned by various contractors.

A social critic and elder statesman, Bob Njemanze, has expressed his dissatisfaction with the projects which he described as ‘white elephant’.

“The exercise is a fraud and a ploy to loot the local government areas, the 27 local governments I have stated clearly from inception is a big fraud, those with the mobilisation money have refused to bring it out and that is why the projects are abandoned,” he said.

Reacting to the alleged contract scam, a former senior adviser to Ihedioha on Research and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary, Ogu Nwadike, confirmed mobilisation was paid for the contract but corrected that it was just about 15 or 25 percent paid against the 80 percent claim.

He said every contract has mobilisation, the rebuild Imo under Ihedioha will not be different, we paid mobilisation but what they are quoting is wrong, everything about rebuilding Imo contracts was tied to banks, there’s nobody that can give above15 or 25 percent, they collected mobilisation and started work before Supreme Court struck,” Nwadike said.

Credit: SunNewOnline