Members of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), United Nigerian Youth Forum (UNYF), have urged the police, other security agencies, as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and take action against the contractor handling the construction of health centres across the country.
They accused the contractor, Mathan Nigeria Limited, of abandoning the N57 billion contract.
The youths said the contractor failed to building and equip the comprehensive health centres across the nation’s 774 local government areas (LGAs) as contained in the contract.
According to them, after collecting an initial N37 billion, the contractor failed to execute 70 per cent of the job.
UNYF addressed reporters yesterday in Kaduna through its Publicity Secretary Ali Muhammad.
The youths said the contractor even went to court and secured a variation of N20 billion.
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Mathan Nigeria Limited is linked to Senator Athan Achonu, the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the November election.
UNYF alleged that the company’s negligence had caused the death of hundreds of expectant mothers who ought to have been safely delivered of their babies at the health facilities, if completed on time.
“Seventeen years after he received payment fully for the execution of the contract, Chief Achonu has not completed the job. In fact, it could be rightly inferred that he abandoned the contract for which he received the initial payment of N37 billion,” UNYF said.
Giving a statistics of the stages of completion of the job in the 774 local government areas, the youths insisted that only 30 per cent of the job had been done since the contract was awrded.
“Since 2006 when the contract was awarded for the building and equipping of one health centre in each of the 774 local government areas in the country, only 263 of the 774 health centres have been built and equipped; while 510 health centres are yet to be built, 17 years later. That means 70 per cent of the job has been abandoned,” UNYF said.
They said Mathan hurriedly completed 26 of the 27 health centres in Imo State when Achonu wanted to contest in the election.
The youths said the media should not allow the matter to be swept under the carpet.
The youths accused the company of muzzling the 774 local governments from where the money was drawn and asked the security agencies to arrest him.
“We don’t think he is above the law. That is why we are calling on well-meaning Nigerians to call on relevant security agencies to arrest and prosecute this man and his company. No one should be allowed to defraud the government and people of Nigeria for such mind-blowing amount of money and go scot-free,” UNYF said.
The youths pledged their readiness to shed more light on this “monumental fraud, including testifying in court”.
The youths said the media should not allow the matter to be swept under the carpet.