Last Saturday, we published “Ugborodo FIFA Stadium and The Betrayal of Local  Content Policy” by Azuka Chiemeka. In this Right of Reply by Ebi Egbe, the CEO of Monimichelle Sports Facilities Construction Company Limited, the contractor at the centre of the ongoing controversy over the non-completion of the stadium, he gave an insight into why the project is stalled, over four years after he moved to site. Excerpts….

I am Ebi Egbe, the CEO of Monimichelle Sports Facilities Construction Company Limited. I want to put on record that I have done nothing wrong on the Ugborodo Stadium project. All the noise about my not completing the project is nothing but a poor attempts at blackmailing me to take the project away from me for reasons best known to those at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) who are the supervising authorities on the stadium funded by FIFA. If they accept the true valuation of $3.5million dollars of the project reached by both the FIFA and NFF quantity surveyors who went to the site, I am ready to return to site to complete the job. To say that $1.080million would complete it is nothing but a huge joke. Besides, the $500,000 that I have been paid so far do not match the level of work that I have done there so far. Anyone comparing building a stadium on an island over three hours away on the Atlantic Ocean with that of Kebbi State on a plain land, is economical with the truth. The costs of moving equipment and materials to Ugborodo from Warri, is enough to do almost half the costs of the project in a place like Kebbi. Those who know the costs of hiring boats,  barges and tugboats to move materials and equipment and other attendant costs associated with a project in the Niger Delta, will also tell you that valuation of $1million for the job was not a sincere one. Besides, those who know me and the quality of my jobs will attest that there is no way Monimichelle will do such job of artificial turf in 2025 when such pitches that are injurious to the health of footballers are currently being phased out of Europe. Rubber infills are carcinogenic. 

First, I want to say that when NFF wrote me that they were terminating the contract, they didn’t follow due process. They went to a third party before reaching me. On this premise, my lawyer gave them 48 hours to reverse the letter and apologize to me. They didn’t. So I have instructed my lawyer to file for an injunction, stopping the NFF or any other person from terminating the contract or engaging any other person or persons from going to my site to work. I still have my multimillion Naira equipment there in Ugborodo. I have taken the matter to FIFA. When I noticed the NFF slacking on variation of the contract after I was tricked into accepting it on the day the bid was closing, I was made to believe that FIFA has agreed to the variation of the project but for whatever reason, those who should know are playing games with me. They want me to go and finish the job when they know that is impossible. That project, as I was made to understand, was to be sited in Warri South. Why it was moved to an island in the Atlantic Ocean with serious consequences for construction in such a terrain, remains mind boggling. 

“I had zero opportunity to visit Ugborodo because I was told that ‘it was just around Warri town’ and it was accessible by road.

I only realized Ugborodo was over 300 nautical miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean without any road network, on the day of site hand over. To make matters worse, the FIFA stadium was sited one metre to a river that had no embankment. We had to move the project site 100 metres away from the river, even at that the site still got flooded. We had to do land reclamation to safeguard the project. (which was not part of our bill). 

Moving the project site 100 metres inward towards land placed the project site on a heap of sand that has 25 per cent slope. The cutting down of the 25 per cent slope took us almost one year,  using my company’s earth moving equipment to cut down almost three metres height on 5 acres of land to the required level suitable for construction. All these were also not part of our bill.

Every construction engineer knows the costs of raft foundation in such a terrain. All these were not captured in the costing of the project.

I must admit here that we had series of meetings with FIFA and the NFF about this Ugborodo project in Abuja. In our last meeting, we resolved that FIFA/ NFF and Monimichelle Sports should appoint independent quantity surveyors to quantify the Ugborodo project. The FIFA/NFF quantity surveyors and Monimichelle sports quantity surveyors went to Ugborodo to quantify the level of work done by Monimichelle Sports and evaluate the actual project cost.

When the evaluation report came out, Ugborodo project was valued at over $3.5million. We have been sending several mails to the NFF without any reply. This was why we had to write FIFA about our predicament with the Ugborodo project.

I want to state here that, I have never had any issue with any private individual that I have done any project for. The owner of Remo Stars, Dr Kunle Soname is my witness. Go to Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne in Ogun State and see the quality of my job. As we speak, he has called me back to give him a new turf as his team is going to play CAF tournament there. Monimichelle did the Mobolaji Johnson Arena at Onikan Lagos. It is one of the best pitches around the country. I have several other jobs around the country with my stamp of authority on them. I have my name that took me years to build with quality jobs to protect. Competitors in the stadium turf construction know we ( Monimichelle) are the best in the country. I will never compromise on quality nor willing to play under-the-table deals. Maybe that is the reason I am having issues with government jobs that certain individuals want to benefit from.

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