Amina Muhammed

Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, lost her beautiful poise in Kaduna Wednesday when she discovered that a contractor paid N600 million by the Federal Government has disappeared without delivering any value for the money.

The contract was for the revamping of the Kaduna Scrap Metal Recovery Plant.

The unidentified contractor simply collected the money and walked away.

Amina only got to know about this when she arrived the plant on an inspection. And she became palpably angry, warning that the Buhari administration will no longer tolerate abandonment of project by contractors after collecting money.

The Assistant Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr Atuora Obed said Mohammed decried the deplorable state of the plant, saying that it was unacceptable for government to spend scarce resources on projects with no appreciable work done on it.

“It is criminal for any contractor to receive payment up to the tune of N600million from the government to execute a project only for the government to discover that there is practically nothing done on the site.

“The Buhari-led administration would not accept such from any contractor irrespective of how highly placed they are. The government has zero tolerance for such retrogressive acts,’’ she said‎.

The minister said the abandonment of the project contradicted government’s intention of establishing the plant to convert waste to wealth.

She, however, assured that the plant would be revamped for optimal use.