Julius Berger contract under scrutiny, Umahi claims termination would save Nigeria N640bn

The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has explained that Nigeria would save N640 billion by terminating Julius Berger’s contract to construct the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road.

Umahi disclosed this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee to defend the government’s decision.

Recall that in November 2024, Umahi announced the termination of Julius Berger’s contract to construct the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road over failure to meet up with contractual conditions.

In a follow-up development, the Nigerian Senate had issued an arrest warrant for Julius Berger over failure to honour an invitation.

Giving further explanation on why the Julius Berger contract was terminated, Umahi said that the road project awarded to the company was terminated recently after the contractor failed to abide by the terms of the contract.

The minister also told the committee that he was not happy with the way the road project was handled for about seven years.

“By my engagement approach, I saved the nation N640 billion from Julius Berger. We wouldn’t if we had accepted to do the job for N1.5 trillion,” Umahi said.

“Now we are not; we are saving the country over N640 billion, and we are improving the architecture of the road.

“The problem of Berger is not just a problem of cost. We said in our conditions for acceptance that this project must be completed in 14 months.

“This project is a non-vary project unless the dollar goes beyond N2000 per dollar. They refused all those conditions, and they set booby traps for us.

“We terminated the job within our rights as executives. They were fairly treated,” he stated.