Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has vowed to recover all money paid to contractors for jobs not completed by the immediate past administration.

Umahi made this vow while receiving interim report of the Dave Nwachukwu-led Market Development Committee in Abakaliki on Monday.

He noted that the contractors had ignored several invitations for joint measurements with the ministries in charge of their contracts and warned that the government would take all necessary steps within the ambit of the law to ensure that they complied.

His words: “A lot of the state fund is in the hands of the contractors. We invited one of the contractors or a number of them to come for joint measurements but they are not complying and when that is not possible, whatever joint measurement done by the supervising ministry stands.

“And again, certification is cumulative and so we have the right and powers to ask contractors to be on site. I am very shocked that 99 per cent of the projects we inherited from the past administration are not going on and none of the contractors has told us why they are not on site. We made efforts to find out but they are not responding.

“So we are going to take steps, if they are not listening to us, they must listen to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and very soon, we will consult the Constitution to take further steps to ensure that the investments of our state are not allowed to be wasted.

“But one thing is very certain, no man will run away with the fund of Ebonyi State no matter the number of lawyers he assembles to tackle the state.”

Umahi, who lamented that 99% of jobs he inherited from the past administration had been abandoned by contractors without reason, said he would use constitutional means to bring them back to site or recover the state’s fund already paid to them.

“But one thing is certain, no man will run away with the fund of Ebonyi State, no matter the number of lawyers assembled by them to tackle the state,” he assured.

Other reports presented to the governor during the occasion were that of higher education and Ikwo College of Education by their committee chairmen, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu and Chief Fidelis Nwankwo.

On the report of petitions written by some members of staff of the Ikwo College of Education against their Provost, Prof. Omebe, the governor directed the immediate disengagement of the 83 persons illegally recruited as workers.

Governor Umahi said: “Let me say that all the employment that were made without due process should be disengaged immediately before we visit the institution.

“So they must be disengaged. Due process must be followed before we even look at this (interim) document. And it is in the interest of the Provost that that is done before the end of this week.”

He warned that his administration would not accept recruitments that did not reflect the geographical spread of the 13 local government areas of the state.

*Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi (centre); Deputy Governor Kelechi Igwe (2nd right), Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Bernard Odoh (2nd left); Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Ignatius Unah ((left) and Permanent Secretary, Ministry/Solicitor-General, Ministry of Justice, Jonathan Okoronkwo, during the inauguration of the two new Perm Secs in Abakaliki . . . on Monday.

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