FACT-CHECK: Documents show Ishaku Abbo lied against Fintiri, in Numan road contract inflation claim
The claim by the Senator representing Adamawa north in the Nigerian Senate, Ishaku Abbo, that the 3.5 kilometres road commissioned last Wednesday in Numan Local government area of Adamawa state is inflated is false, an investigation by THE FINDER has shown.
Also untrue, our findings show is Mr Abbo’s claim that he influence the construction of the 10.5-kilometre Mubi been reconstructed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
In his controversial Facebook post, Mr Abbo had, among other allegations, accused Mr Fintiri of inflating the contract of 3.5 kilometre Numan township road to 1.3 billion naira
But in a curious move, Mr Abbo, who is without any meaningful constituency projects since he narrowly defeated a female APC aspirant Binta Garba in 2019, is laying claim to influencing the MCRP project Bindow led government initiated in 2016 and finally awarded under Fintiri’s government.
The Mubi Betso road project, which was given to Adamawa state government in 2016 as a grant predates Ishaku Abbo’s winning election into the Senate, the MCRP projects was a world bank loan procured by the FG in 2015 and was given to the Adamawa state government as a grant, the roads to be constructed were selected by the Bindow led administration and was finally awarded under the Fintiri’s government.
But THE FINDER can report authoritatively today that Mr Abbo was economical with the truth as far as this particular contract is concerned.
The contract was not that of Ishaku Abbo or neither influence by him.
In his social media post, sighted by this newspaper, Mr Ishaku Abbo, contrary to his claim, has not indicated anywhere that Mubi, Betso road falls under his constituency projects nor influence by him.
Our findings showed that the Mubi, Betso and Garkida road were selected by the Bindow administration in 2016 and was awarded by Fintiri, in as much as Fintiri has the powers to reverse the decision of his predecessor by selecting new roads of his interest, he allows the choice of his predecessor untempered.
Those familiar with contracting procedures in road construction said there was no way Mr Fintiri could have inflated the Numan township road contract as rehabilitation is different from construction.
Fintiri is right
Road contractors and one of the company source handling Mubi, Betso Michika and Garkida road told The Finder that the claim that Fintiri inflated Numan road contract is false as the Mubi, Betso and Michika roads is a rehabilitation and same time a rural road without culvert and drainages.
‘That of the Numan has culvert, drainages and a township road project, the source also said that drainages and culverts consume 40 per cent of every contract awarded in the town.
“The Mubi, Betso road is an existing road, filling, culverts and other infrastructure are already on the ground in the Mubi, Beto road. They are just rehabilitating the road, not construction.
There are no drainages, but Numan has an access slab to people’s houses, and if you remove out drains from the Numan township road contract, you have dropped the contract rate by 40 per cent.
“The Mubi Betso roads have no filled nor sub-base, in the Numan township road you have filled, and you have to excavate up to a metre, and fill the base, so that road Ishaku Abbo is laying claim to is rehabilitation, not construction.
The Construction experts described as “most unfortunate the continued claim by Ishaku Abbo that Fintiri inflated the Numan township road.
CONCLUSION: Mr Ishaku Abbo’s Facebook post does not support his claim that Fintiri inflated the recently commissioned 3.5 Numan contract.
Documents reviewed by this newspaper and interviews with those who should know also indicate that Fintiri did not inflate the 3.5 kilometre Numan township roads.
They also showed that the contract of Mubi, Betso roads is rehabilitation, not construction but that of Numan is construction; rehabilitating roads is cheaper than constructing a new road.