EROSION RAVAGES IMO COMMUNITY AS GOVT ABANDONS OGBAKU—UBOMIRI ROAD

REPORTER: CHIKA EWURUM

Road reconstruction which would have been a respite to the people of Ogbaku and Ubomiri Communities in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State is now an apparent nightmare.

This is as a result of seeming abandonment of the Ogbaku – Ubomiri Road project that has left the people with movement challenges, following worsening erosion on the road with each rainfall.

The rural community roads have suffered some abandonments as those saddled with the responsibility of undertaking the project have left the area and the people to their fate.

This is the case of Ogbaku- Ubomiri Road handled by Imo State Rural, Access and Mobility Project (RAMP), which was started in 2019.

The road if completed would link Onitsha-Owerri road to Orlu road.

When Radio Nigeria visited the site, some of the contractors’ machines and other equipment were seen scattered in the community.

Speaking with a former President General of Nsokpo Community in Ogbaku, Chief Ikechukwu Nnadi, complained that the condition of the road had worsen now compared to its condition before the reconstruction work as most part of the road had been badly affected by gully erosion.

He called on the state government and RAMP to either re-award the contract or release fund for the completion of the road to save the community from what he described as unimaginable flood whenever it rained.

An affected indigene of the community and retired broadcaster, Chief Chika Emerenwa, recalled they were happy at the commencement of the project but their jubilation was cut short at the turn out of things.

Chief Emerenwa frowned that the contractor did not apply human face in their work, as they demolished the entrance to his premises, which he eventually laboured to rebuild after two and half of waiting for them to effect the repairs.

Chief Emerenwa appealed to the Imo State Government to call the contractor back to site to complete what they started.

Speaking with Radio Nigeria in his office, the Imo State RAMP2 Coordinator, Mr. Chinedu Nwadiaro,
explained that the phase 1 of the project, which started from Ogbaku, was not abandoned and there was no intention to abandon it, rather the contractor was facing some economic challenges.

The RAMP Coordinator claimed that high cost of materials affected funding of the project, resulting in slow pace of work on the road.

Mr. Nwadiaro expressed the hope that the project, which was started in 2019, would be completed and damages incurred ratified no matter the duration.

In a telephone interview, an official of the contracting firm in charge of the road, Mr. Peter Okorie, said the project was subcontracted to him and identified the major contractor as L&D Construction company based in Porthacourt.

Mr. Okorie lamented that at the commencement of the work he mobilized himself until he was given only four point two million naira. He said money was the only challenges to completing the work

Meanwhile, the Imo State Governor’s Special Adviser on RAMP, Mr. Damian Oru, told Radio Nigeria that the reconstruction of the Ogbaku-Ubomiri Road is a World Bank project inherited from the previous administration.

He also noted that the major contractor had requested for upward review of the contract sum in tanderm with the present economic reality, which the state had also approved while waiting for the donor agencies.

Mr. Oru insisted that for payment to be made it must follow the due process of submission of Interim Payment Certificate, IPC, which covers for the extent of work done and payment approved after proper review.

In all these the people of Nsokpo community in Ogbaku and those of Ubomiri community demand for a fair treatment and dividend of democracy through good road network to save them from their harrowing experience on the road.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU