Imo River Dredging: Contractor Gets Ultimatum

The Federal Government has issued a two-week ultimatum to the contractor handling the dredging of Imo River, Dayson Holding Ltd, to come up with its technical implementation strategy for the project.

Vice President Namadi Sambo issued the ultimatum in Abuja yesterday, at a meeting with the minister of transport, the management of Dayson, the BPE and other stakeholders.

Sambo charged the company to come up with a bill of quantity, operational plan and design as well as the roadmap for the dredging.

The vice president, who expressed dissatisfaction with the way the project was being handled by the company, noted that it had collected 120 million dollars in respect of the project after signing a contractual agreement in 2005.

He also urged the company, which is a core investor of Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), to resolve whatever problem it had with relevant stakeholders on the acquisition and effectiveness of the company.

The vice president noted that it was unacceptable for Rusal, a technical partner of Dayson which was not mentioned in the privatisation agreement, to run ALSCON.

He said the relevant clause in the agreement should be amended to reflect the situation on ground.

He maintained that the position of rusal should be spelt out in the acquisition agreement “such that it bridges the gap between both companies as Rusal is a subsidiary of Dayson Holdings”.

Sambo lamented that the reason for privatising the company was not achieved as intended by the government, stating that ALSCON was sold because of its potential and viability.

He directed BPE, Dayson and the legal department of his office to meet and address the lacuna in the privatisation  agreement.

He further said the government was ready to offer all the necessary guarantees to Shell Petroleum Development Company to enable it to supply the gas requirement of ALSCON to put the power plant of 500 megawatts to use.