Nigeria: FG Terminates CCECC’s Port Harcout-Aba Road Contract After Gov Otti’s Warning On 2027 Election Manipulation

The Nigerian government has terminated the 43-kilometre Port Harcourt–Aba Road contract awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) over what it described as poor performance and disregard for project standards.

Minister of Works, David Umahi, announced the decision on Sunday while speaking to journalists after inspecting the project site.

According to Umahi, the move followed CCECC’s persistent failure to improve its work despite multiple warnings, leading to the collapse of sections of the road even after substantial funds had been released. He said the government would now engage a competent indigenous contractor to complete the project.

The termination came shortly after Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, declared that he had no intention of defecting from his party and warned against any attempt to manipulate the 2027 governorship election results in the state.

“I’m not defecting to another political party. Those planning to manipulate the Abia State governorship election results in 2027 should first write their own will, because this is our state and we cannot be intimidated,” Otti said.

Otti’s comment comes in the midst of a mass defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as Nigeria appears to be drifting towards a one-party state under the Tinubu regime.

Speaking on the terminated project, Umahi said the Port Harcourt–Aba Road was an inherited contract that had suffered from substandard execution under CCECC’s supervision.

“Today is the 19th of October. The Controller reported to me that the Aba-bound section of Port Harcourt–Aba Road, being constructed by CCECC, is on the verge of total collapse.

“This job, 43 kilometres from Port Harcourt to Aba, is an inherited project, and since we came on board, we have been doing everything, putting funds to see how we can finish one carriageway.

“And so we started working with CCECC on this one carriageway using concrete to do the inner shoulder and the outer shoulder so as to ensure the road lasts, while they are using asphalt to do the 7.3 carriageway.

“And their method of construction has been a very serious source of concern, where you will do binder for over a stretch of 30 kilometres and you are not putting on wear,” he said.

Umahi added that several letters had been written to the company to address the issue, but the contractor failed to comply. He insisted that, despite the termination, CCECC must mill out the binder already laid, as it had been paid for. He further warned that all other CCECC projects in Nigeria could be suspended if the company refused to meet the ministry’s directives.

The development has once again drawn attention to the lack of transparency in Nigeria’s public procurement system. Critics have noted that while foreign contractors are sometimes penalised for poor delivery, many local firms receive contracts without going through the legally required competitive bidding process.

A prominent example is the controversial Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway project, which was awarded to Hitech Construction Company, owned by Gilbert Chagoury, a close ally of President Bola Tinubu, without any open bidding or due process.

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