On a sun-drenched Thursday in June, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly complex in Uyo was eerily silent. It should have been a hive of activity—engineers welding, masons laying bricks, carpenters hammering. Instead, only eight security guards patrolled the sprawling premises, surrounded by idle equipment and stripped roofing sheets.
This is the heart of one of Nigeria’s wealthiest oil-producing states, which raked in N2.53 trillion in revenue over 32 months. Yet the legislature’s headquarters, meant to undergo a massive N15.47 billion rehabilitation, has become a monument to stalled progress and unanswered questions.
A sign at the gate directs visitors to Luton Park Hotel, a temporary office space owned by a former lawmaker, where the Assembly and its Service Commission have operated for over seven months. The relocation, initially expected to last six months, has stretched into a test of public accountability.
Budget documents reveal that between 2025 and 2026, the state government approved N15.47 billion for the project. The 2025 revised budget allocated N2.95 billion for architectural design, reroofing, tiling, and painting, while the 2026 budget added N12.52 billion for structural remodelling, new office buildings, marble flooring, parking lots, and an electric security fence.
Yet more than seven months after work was supposed to begin, the complex remains untouched. A visit on June 4 found only a mobile crane and a concrete mixer. No workers were present. Security personnel told reporters that contractors had not been on site for over three months. Residents confirmed that workers last appeared consistently between February and March, removing the roof and working on a parapet for just four days before vanishing.
The contractor’s identity is a puzzle. An October 2025 circular named JDP Construction Nigeria Limited, but the project signage bears CLAD Construction Nigeria Limited. CLAD’s representatives briefed lawmakers, but a Corporate Affairs Commission search found no records for JDP. CLAD was incorporated on December 7, 2024—less than a year before winning this major contract—with no publicly available record of past projects. Its listed address, 84 Atiku Abubakar Way, could not be located by reporters.
The state’s Public Procurement Law mandates transparency, requiring contracts to be published on an electronic portal. A search found no information on this project. Governor Umo Eno’s administration rarely discloses contract details, and the Direct Labour Committee, which oversees the project, did not respond to queries about the contractor’s identity, procurement process, or funds released.
Lawmakers have been holding plenary sessions at Government House, a setup that sparked a security standoff in June, forcing the Assembly to suspend sittings. The Chairman of the House Services Committee, Lawrence Udoide, dismissed concerns, saying, “Work is ongoing,” and blamed rain for delays. But the six-month completion deadline expired in April 2026, and the project remains far from finished.
The silence from officials is deafening. The Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, and the Direct Labour Committee’s Head of Operations, Morgan Ekanem, did not respond to detailed inquiries. Section 16(16) of the state’s procurement law guarantees public access to records, but none were provided.
As lawmakers and staff continue to operate from a hotel—at unknown public cost—the unfinished complex stands as a stark symbol of the gap between expenditure and accountability. More than N15 billion has been approved, but key questions linger: Who got the contract? How much has been paid? What percentage of the work is done? And why is a project meant to be finished in April 2026 still a ghost site?
