{"id":67566,"date":"2023-11-15T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T16:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=67566"},"modified":"2023-11-15T16:41:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T16:41:20","slug":"national-assembly-chambers-renovation-wont-be-finished-by-dec-31-contractor-replies-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=67566","title":{"rendered":"National Assembly chambers renovation won&#8217;t be finished by Dec. 31, contractor replies Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The Contractor handling the renovation of the House of Representatives chamber says the Dec. 31st deadline given by the Speaker of the House Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, to complete the renovation is not sacrosanct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Project Manager of the contract, Mr Tajudeen Olanipekun, said this while reacting to the Dec. 31 deadline given by the Speaker, who along with his Deputy, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, paid an unscheduled visit to the project site on Nov. 14.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Asked if funding was causing the delay, Olanipekun said an emphatic no, saying the contract has been well funded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">NAN reports that the renovation which began in April\u00a0 2022 has lasted over one year without any signs that the job is nearing completion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">The Speaker gave the Dec. 31, 2023,\u00a0 deadline within which the job should be completed to enable lawmakers to begin year 2024 legislative work at the newly-renovated chamber.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">NAN reports that the project is being handled by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCDA) and not the management of the National Assembly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Olanipekun described the lawmakers as mere end users, adding that the deadline was not sacrosanct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">According to him, \u201cwe are dealing with end users and not the client, whatever we do we report to the client. We cannot stop the end users from coming to see their property.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">NAN reports that the Speaker\u2019s unscheduled inspection was to ensure that the Dec 31 deadline for the conclusion of the project is met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">This would also ensure that the House seating commences in the new chamber on resumption from the end-of-year recess.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Meanwhile, before the renovation work commenced, the national assembly complex was always flooded due to heavy rainfall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Also, in 2019, over N30 billion was budgeted for the renovation of the complex, but the amount generated a lot of criticism and was reviewed downwards to N9 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">Rep. Amos Daniel, Chairman, House Services Committee, also gave the assurance of diligent supervision of the Contractor to ensure that the project was delivered on schedule and according to specification.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 19px;\">\u25cf Report by <strong>NAN<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><!--\/data\/user\/0\/com.samsung.android.app.notes\/files\/clipdata\/clipdata_bodytext_231115_173242_921.sdocx--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Contractor handling the renovation of the House of Representatives chamber says the Dec. 31st deadline given by the Speaker of the House Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, to complete the renovation is not sacrosanct. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Project Manager of the contract, Mr Tajudeen Olanipekun, said this while reacting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3889,585,195],"class_list":["post-67566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-contractor","tag-dec-31","tag-speaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}