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Why Okowa, Uche Okpuno Are At War

The bitter war between Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and ULO Construction Company boss, Uche Okpuno has taken a fresh dimension.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa

Insiders squealed to us that the governor has refused to review the Asaba International Airport contract being handled by ULO Construction Company because the owner, Uche Okpuno is believed to be backing an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant for 2019 guber election.

We gathered that ULO Construction Company has written several letters to the governor for the contract to be reviewed and the governor has rebuffed the company. One of the letters reads: “It is also pertinent to note that the estimate prepared by the Ministry of Works in 2014 without our inputs negates due process and principles of contract. Neither our company nor any other civil engineering company of competence was involved in the preparing of a competitive Bill of Engineering measurement and evaluations”

ULO Construction Company also complained that the Delta State Government’s inability to review cost of materials that have tripled since the adoption and measurement of actual works by them makes it unfavorable for it to carry out construction and maintenance work to international standard and to maintain its integrity, it has decided to serve a notice of disengagement.

Uche Ukpuno

Sources told us that the decision by ULO to pull out of the Asaba International Airport is as a result of Gov. Okowa’s inability to come to terms with reality that the quotation used for 2014 cannot be used for 2017 as prices of construction materials have shot up astronomically.

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However, the Delta State 2017 budget under the Economic Sector, Sub-sector transport, Subhead No. 261, revealed that a whopping sum of N1.5 billion was budgeted for it while N2.51 billion was budgeted the previous year for the construction company to continue its work, but the state government refused to release the money to ULO Construction Company.