A contractor, ENL Consortium Limited, has issued a warning that a concession agreement it entered with Oyo State Government in respect of the Ibadan Circular Road project is still legal and subsisting.
An advertorial signed by its lawyer, Oluseye Opasanya in The Nation newspaper, stated that ENL Consortium Limited is the concessionaire of the 32-kilometre East End Wing of the 107-kilometre proposed Ibadan Ring Road under the terms of a concession agreement dated August 25, 2017 with Oyo State Government under the late former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Pursuant to the agreement, ENL said it was granted exclusive rights to design, finance, construct, operate and maintain the Ibadan Circular Road for a period of 35 years.
The firm noted that its attention was recently drawn to certain pronouncements credited to Oyo State Government in connection with a proposal to re-award the project to another entity, in spite of the continued validity of its concession rights in accordance with the concession agreement.
The firm claimed that the proposed re-award of the project is unlawful and politically-motivated, insisting that the move was an attempt to “expropriate the assets and contractual rights of ENL, contrary to the terms of the subsisting concession agreement and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)”.
“For the record and for the avoidance of doubt, ENL wishes to state that the responsibility for financing the project was placed entirely on ENL; and since it was awarded the Concession Rights in 2017, it has, at its own cost, undertaken various activities in furtherance of the project, including: commissioning of the survey and construction designs (incorporating bridges, culverts and the drainage system) for the 32-kilometre road; clearing and removal of the topsoil from about 30 kilometres of the route; earthworks construction on about five kilometres of the route; laying of asphalt on over two kilometres of the route; blasting of heavy stone and laying of stone base on about one kilometre of the route; installation of streetlights on about two kilometres of the route: and paying compensation to farmers and families for the acquisition of land required for the project,” the statement said.
ENL alleged it has expended over N3,960,000,000 of its own private capital on the project despite the move by the current Oyo State administration.
It warned that it has already initiated a formal dispute resolution proceeding in accordance with the provisions of the concession agreement.
“Any person who engages with Oyo State Government in relation to the project in disregard of this notice does so at his or her risk as any right, interest, title, or privileges that may be granted to such person by Oyo State Government in connection with the project shall be null and void.
“ENL hereby reserves all legal rights and remedies it may have now, or in the future whether under contract, law or otherwise, against any person or group of persons who induces a breach of the Concession Rights or its interest in the project, in any manner whatsoever,” the firm stated.
