Bauchi state government has debunked allegations that it has sidelined indigenous suppliers and contractors in its ongoing construction of 2500 housing projects.
Honorable Hamisu Muazu Shira, the State Commissioner for Housing and Environment who denied the allegations in an interview with journalists at the Government House Bauchi after said Alind Nigeria Limited and other local suppliers have already made supplies of materials needed for the project to the contractors handling the housing project.
“The truth of the matter is that no supplier was sidelined in our housing project, we have earlier promised to patronize materials of our indigenous contractors in the execution of the project.”
“After we received complaints about non-patronage of the materials of our local suppliers, I called a meeting with the contractors and we discussed extensively, but they told us that for now, they can’t buy the materials they don’t require at this stage”, Shira said.
Shira said indigenous contractors should be patient “with us, I want to assure them that we will buy their materials as part of our strategy of patronizing local contents.”
He said with the successes recorded by the state government in the execution of the project, the federal government says it will not hesitate to support the completion of the housing scheme.
“We are being commended by the Federal Government, as Bauchi is the leading state in all the states of the North East where the project is ongoing. “In appreciation to the level of our work, the Family Homes is now willing to release the remaining 6 billion naira for the completion of the project.
“We are willing to patronize local contractors, we have that intention, so as far as we are concerned, our contractors handling the project are doing what they were told to do and that is to patronize local contractors who have qualitative services to offer”, the commissioner added.
