The Benue state House of Assembly has summoned Monimichelle Sports Facility Construction Limited, the contractor handling the upgrading and renovation of sports facilities at the Aper Aku stadium, to appear before it on Wednesday April 2, 2025.
The contractor is expected to explain why the state government should not terminate his contract and hand him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the money paid to him.
The House’s decision was prompted by the motion moved by the Minority Leader, Micheal Audu, on the contractor’s abandonment of the project site despite receiving N1.3 billion out of the N1.7 billion contract sum.
The Minority Leader, Mr. Michael Audu, expressed concern that apart from upgrading the dressing rooms and toilets, as well as repainting the main bowl, the contractor has not provided the track, scoreboards, playing turf, and floodlights as specified in the contract agreement.
He further said the contractor has written to the state government claiming additional works on the project amounting to several hundreds of millions of naira and demanding N300 million to clear synthetic grass from the port before returning to the site.
The House while deliberating on the motion directed the Ministry of Finance to halt further payments to the contractor and summoned the Finance Commissioner and the Commissioner for Sports, Youth and Creativity to appear alongside the contractor.
Contributing, the Chief Whip of the House, Mr. Peter Ipusu, the Deputy Whip, Mr. Cephas Dyako, Majority Leader, Mr. Saater Tiseer, expressed total disappointment with the contractor having collected the huge sum of money and is still holding the state to ransome.