CONTRACTED JULY, COMMISSIONED AUGUST: MYSTERY BEHIND Oborevwori’S PERMANENT SECRETARIES’ QUARTERS ROADS

Official records show six-month contract awarded July 30, 2026, but Governor Oborevwori commissioned the roads and drains on August 20

By Robi Chika

A fresh investigation into the construction of internal roads and drainage facilities at the Permanent Secretaries’ Quarters along Cabinet Road, Asaba, Delta State, has uncovered a striking discrepancy between the project’s official procurement timeline and the date it was publicly commissioned.

Official records of the Delta State Public Procurement Commission show that the contract for the “Construction of Internal Roads and Drains in the Permanent Secretaries Quarters Along Cabinet Road, Asaba” was awarded to Presnol Global Enterprise on July 30, 2026, with a contractual period of six months and an expected completion date of January 26, 2027.

Yet, barely 21 days after the recorded contract award, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori publicly commissioned the newly constructed internal roads and drainage facilities at the quarters on August 20, 2026.

The official project-monitoring portal currently records the project at zero per cent progress, adding another layer to the questions surrounding the project’s chronology.

The discrepancy does not, by itself, establish financial misconduct or prove that the project was unlawfully executed. But it raises significant questions about when the physical work actually commenced, what contract governed the construction before July 30, the source of funding, and how a project with a six-month contractual completion period was described as completed and commissioned less than a month after its recorded award.

THE PAPER TRAIL

The Delta State Public Procurement Commission’s project-monitoring records identify the project as DSPPC/CNO/2202.

The project is attributed to the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency and is located within Oshimili South Local Government Area.

According to the official record, the scope includes approximately 570 metres of road, with an average pavement width of six metres, as well as about 650 metres of drainage.

The works include earthworks, laterite filling, drainage construction, box culverts, access slabs, crushed-stone base, hot-rolled asphalt pavement and thermoplastic road markings.

The contractor listed is Presnol Global Enterprise.

The contract was recorded as awarded on July 30, 2026, with a six-month duration and an expected completion date of January 26, 2027.

But the same official monitoring record currently puts the project’s physical progress at 0 per cent.

That creates an obvious documentary contradiction.

If the contract commenced on or around the award date, how could a project requiring road construction, drainage works, culverts, asphalt surfacing and road markings have been completed sufficiently for commissioning only three weeks later?

And if the work had substantially been completed before July 30, under what earlier contract, approval or funding arrangement was it undertaken?

AUGUST 20 COMMISSIONING

The discrepancy becomes more striking when the procurement record is compared with the Governor’s August 20 commissioning ceremony.

Investigations from the event stated that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori commissioned 12 four-bedroom duplexes as well as newly constructed internal roads and drainage facilities at the Permanent Secretaries’ Quarters in Asaba.

The Governor was reported to have described the infrastructure as addressing longstanding challenges associated with flooding and erosion within the quarters.

The commissioning therefore presents the roads and drains as completed infrastructure.

But the procurement record places the formal award of the roads-and-drains contract only 21 days earlier.

More importantly, the contract itself was not supposed to reach its contractual completion date until January 26, 2027.

The question is therefore straightforward:

What exactly was commissioned on August 20?

Was it the same work covered by DSPPC/CNO/2202?

If yes, how was the work completed in 21 days despite a six-month contractual period?

If no, what earlier contract or government intervention produced the roads and drainage facilities that were commissioned?

THE BUDGET QUESTION

This investigation also examined Delta State’s 2026 budget documents for a specific appropriation corresponding to the roads-and-drains project.

An official 2026 proposed capital budget document contains Budget Code 025300100100.465, described as “Renovation of flats at the Permanent Secretaries Quarters.”

The provision was listed at N100 million for 2026.

However, the description does not specifically identify the construction of internal roads and drains.

This does not establish that the roads project was unbudgeted.

Government could have funded the work through another appropriation, a broader infrastructure provision, a reallocation, variation, supplementary appropriation or another legally authorised funding mechanism.

But it does raise an important accountability question:

Which exact budget code and appropriation funded DSPPC/CNO/2202?

Until that question is answered with the relevant financial documents, it would be premature to describe the project as an “unbudgeted” project.

SAME CONTRACTOR, DIFFERENT CONTRACT

This investigation also found that Presnol Global Enterprise had previously secured a separate contract connected with the same Permanent Secretaries’ Quarters.

The Delta State Public Procurement Commission’s monitoring records identify DSPPC/CNO/1770, awarded to Presnol Global Enterprise on October 9, 2025, for the construction of 12 terrace duplexes as additional residential accommodation for Permanent Secretaries at the Permanent Secretaries’ Quarters, Asaba.

That project is recorded as having reached 100 per cent progress.

The fact that the same contractor subsequently handled the roads-and-drains project is not evidence of wrongdoing.

However, it makes the procurement and project history particularly important.

Were the roads and drainage facilities part of the original planning for the 12 duplexes?

Were they contemplated in the earlier contract?

Was there a variation to the earlier contract?

Or were the roads and drains entirely separate works procured through DSPPC/CNO/2202 in 2026?

Those questions can only be conclusively answered by the underlying contract documents.

THE TENDER TIMELINE

The public procurement trail provides another important date.

A tender notice for the roads-and-drains project had a deadline of July 6, 2026.

The contract was subsequently recorded as awarded on July 30, 2026.

That sequence is consistent with a procurement exercise taking place around July.

But it makes the August 20 commissioning date even more difficult to reconcile with the six-month contractual duration.

Between the tender deadline and commissioning was only about six weeks.

Between contract award and commissioning was just three weeks.

For a conventional road project involving drainage, earthworks, laterite, culverts, stone base, asphalt surfacing and road markings, the timeline requires explanation.

WAS THERE AN EARLIER CONTRACT?

One of the most important questions arising from the investigation is whether DSPPC/CNO/2202 was actually the first contract for the roads.

There are at least three possible explanations that need to be tested against documentary evidence.

The first is that the roads were genuinely constructed within the 21-day period between July 30 and August 20.

If that is the case, the government and contractor should be able to provide the commencement certificate, site records, engineers’ reports, payment certificates and completion documentation showing how the works were executed.

The second possibility is that the physical works were substantially completed under an earlier contract or arrangement and that the July 30 contract represented a subsequent phase, additional works or formalisation of an existing intervention.

If so, the earlier contract should be identifiable.

The third possibility is that the procurement-monitoring records do not accurately reflect the chronology of the physical works for example, if the contract award was uploaded or entered into the public system after work had already commenced under a valid prior authorisation.

Again, the relevant documentation should settle the matter.

DELTA STATE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE

In seeking clarification from the Delta State Government before publication, our reporter contacted the Managing Director of the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, Mr. Patrick Ukah, on Monday, September 7, 2026, regarding the apparent discrepancy between the recorded contract award date and the August 20 commissioning of the roads and drainage facilities.

Ukah, whose agency is identified in the official project-monitoring records as the agency responsible for the project, said the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekemejero Ohwovoriole, SAN, would be in a better position to respond to the questions.

Our reporter subsequently contacted Ohwovoriole, SAN, to seek clarification on the procurement and project timeline.

However, the Attorney-General declined to comment on the matter, saying he could not grant interviews over the telephone.

He did not, however, schedule an alternative interview or provide a date and venue for an official meeting at the time of publication.

The government’s response therefore remains limited to the referral by the Managing Director of the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency to the Attorney-General, while the Attorney-General declined to provide a response by telephone.

This medium is willing to publish any substantive clarification or documentary evidence subsequently provided by the Delta State Government concerning the contract, funding source, commencement date, execution timeline, completion certification and the August 20 commissioning of the roads and drainage facilities.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD EXPLAIN

Our investigation has not established that any public funds were misappropriated or that the project was unlawfully procured.

But the discrepancies are sufficiently material to warrant documentary clarification.

ACCOUNTABILITY GAP

Public procurement records are meant to provide citizens with a transparent trail from appropriation to procurement, contract award, execution, payment and completion.

Where a project appears in official records as a six-month contract awarded on July 30, but the same infrastructure is publicly presented as completed and commissioned on August 20, the public is entitled to understand the missing link.

The issue is not whether the roads exist.

The issue is which contract paid for them, when the work was executed, under what appropriation, and why the official project timeline does not appear to correspond with the physical reality presented at the commissioning ceremony.

The response obtained from the Delta State Government has not, at the time of publication, resolved those questions.

Until the relevant documents are produced, the 21-day gap remains an unresolved public-interest question.

And in a state where billions of naira are appropriated annually for infrastructure, such questions deserve answers based not on political statements but on contracts, budget documents, payment records, engineers’ certificates and verifiable project-monitoring data.

Ome Africa would continue to track the project and seek the relevant procurement and financial documents, including the contract award, bill of quantities, funding source, payment certificates, completion certificate and any variation or earlier contract connected to the Permanent Secretaries’ Quarters roads and drainage works.