The renovation lasted for about two years and was awarded to Visible Construction Limited for the sum of N42 billion.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday threatened to take legal action against the contractor responsible for renovating the National Assembly’s permanent chambers following repeated technical faults with the microphones installed in the Senate chamber.
Mr Akpabio made the threat during plenary after several microphones malfunctioned, causing echoes.
He said the defective audio system had previously embarrassed him and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, during the opening ceremony of the National Assembly Week held in the House chamber on Tuesday.
“Distinguished colleagues, I hope you are taking note of the fact that our microphones are not working well, because we are going to take action.
“I was at the House of Representatives yesterday to represent you at the opening of their National Assembly Week, and in the course of it, myself and the speaker were thoroughly embarrassed. The same contractor that handled the renovation of the House of Representatives handled this one as well.
“If this continues, we have steps we can take, legally, to ensure that a good job is done because this is an embarrassment to our nation,” Mr Akpabio said.
The Senate president urged lawmakers to take note of the recurring faults, saying their observations would justify any action eventually taken against the contractor.
“I hope you are taking note of it, so that when they go to social media to start complaining after we have taken action, you will know why we took the action. We are all witnessing what is going on now,” he stated.
This is not the first time lawmakers have raised concerns about the quality of the renovation since they returned to the permanent chambers in 2024.
On 7 May 2024, Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) criticised the quality of the renovation, stating that the chamber was poorly refurbished despite the billions of naira spent on the project.
The National Assembly complex is maintained by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). The renovation lasted for about two years, during which lawmakers conducted plenary sessions in temporary chambers within the National Assembly complex.
PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported that the federal government awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the National Assembly complex to Visible Construction Limited for the sum of N42 billion.
This is despite the fact that former President Muhammadu Buhari approved N37 billion to renovate the National Assembly complex in 2019.
