The Federal Government has agreed to offer an additional N20.5 billion for the completion of the Bonny-Bodo road project in December.

The government, however, said if the construction company, Julius Berger, was not ready to accept the offer, the contract would be terminated.

Minister of Works, David Umahi, said this during a meeting with the managing director of Julius Berger, Lars Ritcher and members of the Bodo-Bonny Road Peace Committee on Wednesday in Abuja.

Julius Berger had requested a variation of N28 billion on the 82 per cent completed project.

The company hinged its request on the rise in exchange rates for construction materials and diesel, among others.

Mr Umahi, however, said the government was willing to provide N20 billion out of the N28 billion that Julius Berger requested.

According to him, the Bonny-Bodo road contract, which was initially awarded at the cost of N120 billion in 2015, was later varied to N199 billion with a completion deadline of December 2023, which has since elapsed.

In 2017, an agreement was reached between the Federal Government, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas and Julius Berger on modalities for funding the project cost of N199.923 billion without any further increase.

“If you do not accept the federal government’s offer by Friday and resume work on the site, the previously expired 14-day ultimatum for termination of the project will be enforced.

“I want to let you know that we are the client. No contractor will dictate to this ministry, and there is no job that is compulsory that a particular contractor must do. We give you an offer. If you do not like the offer, you walk away. You don’t force us or we don’t force you. Agreement of a contractual relationship is a mutual understanding,’’ the minister said.

Mr Umahi said that if Julius Berger adhered to the project timetable, the project would have been completed on schedule before the impact of foreign exchange.

“Our position is simple; we reject the conditions of Julius Berger totally and we ask Berger to please return to the site to complete the project based on our offer. Our offer is unconditional and we say accept or reject, so you cannot subject our offer to your conditions ,’’ he added.

Mr Umahi said the company should be humble in its dealings and exhibit solidarity during challenges.

Earlier, Mr Richter explained that the company suspended work on the site to seek some clarifications from the ministry.

According to him, the company asked for the amount of N28 billion because, at the time the contract was awarded, the exchange rate was N305 to a dollar and diesel was N350 per litre.

“We will still require some outstanding materials; that means that the initial agreement can’t fly because the variation of the project is not sufficient and the exchange rate is also not in our favour to compensate for the additional costs.

“That is why we decided to go back to our original proposal of the augmentation. Augmentation is a normal process for all contracts,” the managing director said.

Palace Secretary, Bonny Kingdom, Abel Attoni, expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the decision to complete the Bodo-Bonny road project.

Mr Attonu urged the parties to be patriotic and make the necessary sacrifices for the actualisation of the project.

(NAN)