Amid legal tussles, uncertainties and tales of contract re-awards, the Oyo State Government recently re-awarded the Ibadan Circular Road (ICR) and named it after former governor Rashidi Ladoja. In this report, YINKA ADENIRAN chronicles the potential benefits of the ambitious road project and litigation disputes that may undermine the successful delivery of the much-needed the project.
Ibadan Circular Road is famous for been awarded and re-awarded by different governors in Oyo State. The peculiarity of the project makes it attractive to successive governments. However, Governor Seyi Makinde dared the impossible recently when he again re-awarded the project for the fifth time. Makinde went a bit further in his bid to ensure the project sees the light of the day by renaming it after a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja.
But re-flagging off the 110km Ibadan Circular Road came amid legal tussles between the government and a sacked contractor who was awarded the project by the immediate past administration of the late Abiola Ajimobi. It was on record that the road was first flagged off about six years ago.
History of Ibadan Circular Road and tales of controversy
There have been five awards for the execution of construction works on the project to date since 2017. The project had been terminated four out of the five times it was awarded. Two of the awards had been through Public-Private -Partnership on 35years concession basis. The late Ajimobi, on June 16, 2017, awarded the concession for the 32.2km South East Wing Phase 1, spanning between Ibadan-Lagos Expressway (E1) to Egbeda on Ibadan-Ife Expressway to ENL Consortium Limited, with delivery expected by June, 2020. It was however extended to 31st August 2020 to allow for the COVID-19 force majeure experienced for the most part of that year.
But the concession was terminated in March 2021 by Governor Makinde due to what was described as non-performance and failure to deliver in three years as promised in the contract agreement. However, Makinde, again in June 2021, re-awarded the entire 110km road project to the SEL-Vydra Consortium via concession using Build-Operate-Transfer model, with the investment recoupment via tolling for up to 35years, but with the counterpart funding from the government.
In March 2022, a phased approach was adopted when the government awarded the package of work for two interchange and four bridges work-scope within the South-East to Craneburg Limited. But, in July 2022, a federal high court in Abuja ordered Craneburg Construction Company to stop work on the project. The court order was part of the prayers it granted in a suit filed by ENL Consortium limited against the state government, Craneburg Construction Company, and three others. The controversy around the ICR began to fester after the Makinde-led administration terminated the contract for the construction of the multi-billion naira road project, which was awarded to ENL construction by his immediate predecessor.
Speaking at the re-flagging-off, Governor Makinde said his administration has identified some of the challenges that are related to the project and has been able to design a lot of safeguards to address the challenges and truly deliver on the project. Before the eventual award of the project, the government had cried out that politicians, especially members of the opposition, were using the contractor to frustrate the efforts of the government at seeing through the project. Makinde said: “They have flagged off this Circular Road before about six years ago. But what it had always ended up was that it was abandoned. So, we are re-flagging it off for real this time around. We have been able to identify some of the challenges that are related with the project and we have been able to design a lot of safeguards to take us away from those challenges and truly deliver this project. So we are re-flagging it off but also, we are naming the road Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja Circular Road.
“We choose to name this project after Senator Rashidi Ladoja because of his great contributions to the development of Oyo State. Of course, one of those contributions is conceiving the Ibadan Circular Road project and putting some monies aside for that road. The design, compensation was paid by him and his administration. There has always been a misconception about whose idea it was to build the Ibadan Circular Road. But, I can declare today because I have access to many files which had been put under the carpet for years and I can declare to you that the person who saw the future and thought of how to ease traffic congestion within the city of Ibadan is here with us and in a way, this event is about giving honour to whom it’s due.
“The idea behind Ibadan Circular Road was based on proven economic realities. Almost 20 years down the line, we now live with those realities. And so, like all great ideas, if they tarry, they refuse to die. When we came in, we met an attempt at bringing the Ibadan Circular Road to life, and we commend the last administration for at least seeing the benefits of building this road. Unfortunately, the plan failed. But here we are today, giving a new life to this project.
“The road construction has actually started and it is about 7.6 per cent progress and we are confident that in the next 12 months, the 32km East End wing of the project will be completed. They are fixing all the bridges and culverts right now and that is the most difficult portion of any road construction. Once that one is sorted, the asphalt and other parts become easier. The entire 110km project geographically situates within the Ibadan metropolis. It links Egbeda, Ona Ara, Lagelu, Akinyele, Iddo and Oluyole areas. Without any doubt, it will eliminate congestions along the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and it will also generate money for Oyo State because the road will be tolled.”
In July 2021, when the plan to re-award the road was muted by Governor Makinde, ENL had through its Chairman, Clement Adesuyi Hastrrup, threatened not to leave the site until a sum of N10.6 billion was paid. The contractor said the governor has no right to re-award the contract until he received the money, but Makinde dared the contractor by re-awarding the project to a new firm. The award of the contract for the construction of the 110km ICR to a new concessionaire, named Messrs SEL-Vydra Consortium, was at a cost of N138.2 billion. The project, which is to be executed on a Build, Operate and Transfer concession arrangement, is also classified as a User-Pays toll road. But, it was gathered that the portions awarded to ENL at the cost of N67billion by the Ajimobi administration represented only a third of the entire 110km stretch of the all-important road now awarded at the cost of N138.2bn.
Scope and beauty of Ibadan Circular Road
The 110km ICR, now remained Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja Circular Road, is identified and assessed to provide a by-pass alternative route to traffic transmitting to other parts of Nigeria, instead of through Ibadan city which is already the third largest city in Nigeria. This means the ICR will complement the original Ring Road concept, which had been on the drawing board for many years till it was selected in 2002, route survey done in 2005 and detailed design concluded in 2007.
The road is expected to provide accessibility over 110km X 1km development corridor, enhance the social economic expansion, movement of goods, services and people across the state and other parts of the country. The road is segmented into four quadrants: South-East (32.2km), North-West (33.0km), South-West (24.0km) and North-East (20.8km). The 110km dual carriage way has 500m development corridor each way from centre line; each carriage way is expected to have centre median width of 3.0m, main lanes pavement width of 7.3m, shoulder width of 4.5m and set-back ranging from 60-100m.
Sacked contractor breaks silence on litigation
A source within ENL Consortium who is in the know of the situation in the sacked company said his company is not fighting the government for anything other than its right, noting that despite the volumes of work done so far at the site without collecting a dime, the government after revoking the contract still went as far as paying N28billion to an Egyptian company for a project that was supposed to be private sector driven. According to the source, the sacked contractor, ENL had spent over N3billion and disagreed with Governor Makinde who claimed to have sacked the company due to lack of capacity of ENL to deliver the project.
The company also denied insinuations that it was being used by politicians or members of the opposition to stall the project, especially when it took the option of court to pursue its claims on what it described as “illegal revocation” of the contract, adding that the government should also be prepared for further arbitration in a London court as the clause was contained in the contract papers the last administration signed with the ENL when it was awarded the contract. The source also accused the governor of pursuing a different agenda that may not allow the project sail through especially as it relates to re-awarding the contract to a foreign firm against the spirit of developing home-grown companies.
The source said: “The contract as you are aware is PPP; we didn’t collect one dime from the government. All we wanted was a letter from Oyo State government, reassuring our financiers that the project will be allowed to continue. Government is a continuum, but unfortunately the governor has his own agenda. We didn’t ask for a kobo from the governor; he now invited an Egyptian company and paid them N28billion of Oyo State money. Those ones are playing at the site. He now turned round to accuse our company of being sponsored by politicians to stall the project; meanwhile the project was stalled by the governor’s recklessness.
“We are not fighting the government for anything. What we are fighting for is our rights. Our company has spent so much on the project. Common sense demands that we should be allowed to complete the project especially when we are not asking the Oyo state government to give us any money.”
Former governor Ladoja, at the event, also put to rest the insinuations as to who initiated the project. In his remarks, Ladoja said he embraced the idea of the Circular road given the potential it has to ease traffic and generate income for the state while he was the governor in 2003. Ladoja lamented that despite allocating funds to kick-start the project, his illegal impeachment for 11 months affected the project as the fund he initially allocated for the project was diverted to other things by his successor in office. He said after commissioning the design, he paid compensation to all affected land owners and as of 2005, all were ready to start the project, with a determination to go ahead even if it will take up to 20 years to complete. However, with the seeming uncertainties around the ICR, only time will tell if the Makinde-led administration will be able to make true his promise by completing the project in record time.