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Parents Call Out Contractor Over Shabby School Building Project

The school, which was contracted to Remofe Enterprises Ltd, had a block of 13 classrooms constructed under the UBEC 2016 Project and was inaugurated for use in December 2018.

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Parents and teachers at Anwar-ul-Islam Primary School have decried the shabby work done by the contractor who built the school.

The school, which was contracted to Remofe Enterprises Ltd, had a block of 13 classrooms constructed under the UBEC 2016 Project and was inaugurated for use in December 2018.

However, seven months after its inauguration, some parts of the school building have gone bad. Classroom roofs, doors and water supply pipes installed in the school during construction have continued to develop faults.

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Speaking to SaharaReporters, Chairman of School Parent Forum, AbdulRahman Assakin, said with just about seven months in use, they have had to complain about leaking roofs and bad doors multiple times, adding that the contractor had refused to permanently fix the faults in the school.

He said, “We complained in May that a part of the roof is leaking and the contractor had to come back to fix it. But after that, we realized some of the doors are bad too. It was substandard products he used,” Assakin, who has 5 kids in the school, lamented.

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He added, “Every time we noticed an issue, we call him and then he comes to fix it. The doors are not quality, what they used is plastic and every time there is an issue, they come to patch it."

Similarly, Head of Parent Forum, Alhaji Salau Kazeem expressed displeasure over the quality of work done by the contractor. He complained that the school deserved to have a new borehole but the contractor failed to provide one.

He added that the major concern of the school was electricity. 

According to Assakin, the school was connected to a power grid and was given an estimated billing metre.

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He said, “The electricity distributor company brings outrageous bills which the school could not keep up with. We have been disconnected from the power for over five months.

“Instead of prepaid metre, they brought metre with high billing, the school could not keep up with the payment. Parents decided to help with the bills at some point but it became burdensome too and so the school have been cut off the power ever since."

Alhaji Kazeem added that several efforts have been made by the stakeholders to get some intervention but nothing has been done yet.

“We have written several times to CSOs like HDI and SUBEB to help resolve this issue but we have not got any response yet.”

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A teacher in the school, who simply identified himself as Mr Godfrey, appealed to the authorities to help expedite action on the electricity issue, as it affects other parts of the school academic activities.

“On behalf of the teachers, we are imploring the authorities to please provide us with electricity, so we can pump water and be able to use the water closet system in the toilets. Most times, some of the pupils go outside to ease themselves because of the lack of water,” he said.

When contacted, Mr Koya Adenola, Projects Director of Lagos State Universal Basic Education, refused to speak to our correspondents. Repeated calls to his phone were not answered and he also failed to respond to message sent to his line.