Sambo’s Taste Hikes Cost Of VP’s Home To N16b

Facts have emerged on why additional N9 billion is required to fix the N7 billion residence of Vice President Namadi Sambo.

The extra cash is needed to make the quarters suit Sambo’s culture and religion, Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Domingo Obende told reporters in Abuja, quoting Julius Berger, which is handling the project.

According to Obende, a Julius Berger engineer told the committee that the design of the house was intended for then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan but Sambo whose culture and religion are different suddenly emerged as vice president.

Obende, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, was asked what the extra N9 billion being sought by Julius Berger was meant for.

He said: “I like being factual and I like addressing issues the way I understand them and in the perspective that I believe will throw light at a situation.

“I recall one of Julius Berger engineers saying, ‘well the design of this building was made to accommodate a vice president but now we have another vice president whose culture and religion are different from the intended user or end user of the building.

“I remember asking him what are you talking about? When you are designing a vice president’s residence there must be a standard.

“You don’t know who is going to be there.

“It could even be a handicapped person that will occupy the building.

“So you have to make provision for that.

“In other words, the design must be functional such that even a disabled person will be able to live there comfortably and without any amendment.

“Because you now have a vice president whose culture, tradition and religion are different you are re-designing, adding some other features costing you as much as N9 billion when the original contract sum is N7 billion.

“The size of the land has not changed. I really don’t understand what kind of private structure on a land that is less than 20,000 square metres will take about N16.5 billion to complete.”

Noting that Nigeria ’s money must be used judiciously, Obende said the committee’s Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi, was bitter about the astronomical increase in the project’s cost.

He said: “My chairman was very bitter about this issue.

“I made my observations. We are discussing with them.

“Yes we know because of the long period of the job there could be need for variation and if there are additions but this must be commensurate with the original contract sum.

“Not a variation being more than the original contract sum, it is unacceptable.

“We understand that he is the vice president of this country, his security is paramount.

“Nobody wants the security of his vice president compromised but that money for security is too much”.

The committee, Obende said, had requested for specifics such as the additional work, the drawing, bill of quantity, how much they collected, how much they have committed to the building so far, the bill of payment and then the original job.

“These are the things we have asked for and until that is done substantial work cannot continue on that structure”.

Obende added: “So I can assure Nigerians that with the kind of chairman, we have in FCT Committee and me also as vice chairman who understands the indices of such structure, I think that we will be able to look at the situation and we will not lose our money to contractors who may be doing the right thing at the wrong time.

“We want contractors that will do the right thing at the right time so that Nigeria’s money will be used judiciously.”

Two weeks ago, the Senate Committee on FCT during its oversight visit opposed the proposed extra cash for the building renovation.

Adeyemi, who spoke at the site of the project, said such a huge sum was uncalled for especially at a time when most Nigerians cannot afford three square meals.

Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Adamu Ismail told the lawmakers that the job was awarded to Julius Berger in 2009 for N7billion.

Ismail said the cash was needed for furniture, fencing, two additional protocol guest houses, a banquet hall and other security gadgets.

He said these were not captured in the original scope of work.

But Adeyemi said: “The National Assembly is not going to appropriate additional N9billion for the project especially at a period in this country where people cannot get three square meals.

“The N9billion is far more than the original cost of the project.”

Ismail replied by the that the amount had been slashed to about N6billion Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

He said: “We have worked out the details and passed to BPP for consideration.

“They (BPP) have sent it back to us with their observation.

“We requested for N9billion but now it came to about N6billion.”

The vice president’s residence is a sprawling one-storey building sitting on a wide expanse of land beside the Millennium Park and behind the Yellow House Headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS).

The building has a wide outer and inner parlours with rooms.

There is a chapel and mosque on the left and right hand side of the house.

The building has been plastered and work is going on the central cooling system.

The inner parlour has marble tiles. The sewage and water system has been completed.

There are no furniture items or any furnishing yet. The doors and windows are yet to be fixed.

The landscaping of the compound has commenced but the roads are not tarred nor the floor tiled.

Source: The Nation