Why Julius Berger Pulled Out Of Port Harcourt Ring Road Project

One of the casualties of the political crisis in Rivers State is the Port Harcourt Ring project that has been abandoned by the contractor, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC.
Julius Berger pulled out of the project after the Sole Administrator of the state, Vice-Admiral Ibok (Rtd.), refused to renegotiate new terms with the contractor.
The Port Harcourt Ring project was the first road project awarded by the Siminalayi Fubara government. It is also the most ambitious project of the state government as the road covers a distance of 62.5 kilometres and running through the six local government areas of Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor, Ikwerre, Etche, Oyigbo and Eleme.
Scheduled to be completed within four years, the project was awarded in 2023 shortly after Fubara was inaugurated as governor, and it stood out as the signature project of the administration. Awarded at the cost of N195 billion, the state government paid 77 percent of the value to the contractor.
The project was going on smoothly until about two months ago when the contractor made a case for contract variation. The submission of the variation came after Governor Fubara was suspended from office following the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.
According Government House sources, Julius Berger submitted a variation of N172 billion to the Sole Administrator, Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas.
But Ibas rejected the variation application by Julius Berger on the grounds that the contract for the project spelt it out clearly that there would be no variation for the project. And that was why the state government paid 77 percent of the contract sum which amounted to N150 billion to the contractor.
The abandonment of the project has raised concerns among residents of the state, some of who felt disappointed that the state government under the Sole Administrator had allowed the project to stall. They said that the project would not have been allowed to stall if Fubara were still on seat because he would have renegotiated terms with the contractor.
Along with many other projects that were ongoing at the time the state of emergency was declared in Rivers State, the Port Harcourt Ring Road project is now seen as one of the casualties of the political crisis in Rivers State.
The Sole Administrator had last month ordered the discontinuation of further procurement processes for all contracts that had not been awarded.
The project sites had been evacuated when National Point toured the sites during the week. Both workers and equipment of the contractors have been moved out. Though some sections of the road project were open to motorists, some other portions were blocked to traffic.
However the Trans-Kalabari road project, awarded for N225 billion has not stalled as the contractors were still working on site when National point visited.