A review of the Edo State Open Contracting Portal shows that in July 2021, a contract to construct a magistrate court complex at Ikpoba Okha L.G.A was awarded to Erylaston International Limited for the sum of N495.7 million.
During a field monitoring to ensure value for money, Dataphyte reporter discovered only the contract for the construction of a magistrate court complex at Ikpoba Okha L.G.A has been completed.
Before the award of the contract, the old magistrate court buildings were dilapidated. Despite the bad conditions, the court was used by Ikpoba-Okha LGA, Oredo LGA and Egor, all neighboring LGA separated by a few kilometers. Specifically, Oredo is about 30 mins drive from Ikpoba-Okha while Egor is also about 30 mins drive from Ikpoba-Okha.
Based on findings, the existing magistrate court has twelve courtrooms that the three local governments share. And most times due to too many court sessions, two courts sit in one of the courtrooms to accommodate all the cases they have.
The courtrooms have inadequate chairs and for those with chairs, they were either benches or worn-out upholstery chairs.
Similarly, the windows had incomplete sets of louvers. Also, a court official who spoke to Dataphyte noted that each time it rains, the courtrooms are usually flooded with water that prevents them from holding hearings.
The state of the roofs confirmed the claim by the court staff.
Speaking to other members of staff of the court, they noted that the new courtrooms were a good disposition on the part of the government. However, they expressed concern that provision would still be inadequate to accommodate all the three local governments. As at the time of the visit to the courtroom which is located on Benin-Sapele road, the project was completed, with 5 courtrooms and offices fully furnished.
When Dataphyte spoke with the Chief Magistrate of the court, he said he was not sure of how the new magistrate court building will be shared amongst the three local governments. Although he hinted that the appeal court is likely to take 2 of the courtrooms, leaving them with three courtrooms which are not adequate. He went further to state that there are speculations that the other courtrooms for the other local government which are Oredo and Egor will be built in the respective local government.
The Dataphyte team was unable to meet with a referenced Chief registrar in the high court to get more information on the subject matter. On several occasions when the team visited, he was not in his seat.
Further investigations by the Dataphyte team about the details of the contractors to which the contract was awarded revealed that none of the contractors Erylaston International Limited and Macfranklyn Limited is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria.
However, they were both discovered to be registered with the Edo state public procurement agency.