Uyo Residents Decry Poor Road Construction
By Abasiofiok Inyang
For residents of Chief Udo Eno Street, Akpasak Jubilee
Estate, Oron road, Uyo, the award of contract by the Akwa Ibom State Government
for the construction of road project in the street, ordinary would have been a
thing of joy. Rather, fear of community being completely sacked by flood has
enveloped them.
The fear, The Sensor gathered, is as a result of poor job
execution currently being handled by John Global Investment Ltd.
The residents in a Save Our Souls (SOS) letter sent to the
Akwa Ibom State Government through the office of the Commissioner for Works,
Udo Udoma Avenue, Uyo, of which a copy has been made available to The Sensor,
while expressing gratitude to the State Government for coming to construct the
road said to had been in a deplorable condition for over four decades, however,
regretted that the construction company awarded the road project has no
experienced workforce to handle what they described as “sensitive and difficult
terrain.
The letter signed by a community leader, Chief Enobong Mfon
and community elder, Evangelist Emmanuel Bassey, stated inter alia, “the
workers (site engineers, surveyors etc) do not seem to understand what they are
doing since there is no consultant engineer and surveyor to direct the works;
the contractor seems to be confused as to how to channel the drains, since he
has no drainage design of the road and its spurs”.
A youth leader in the area, Edidiong Umana told The Sensor.
Residents have also observed with fear that the foundation of the drainage is
placed on top soil whereas top soil should have been scraped, filled and
compacted with laterife before determining the correct level of the drainage,
and that the company has “no systematic work programme that would enable it
achieve a reasonable job completion without causing the residents an untold
suffering especially during the rainy season as the area is flood prone.”
The residents, therefore, called on the State Government to
carryout an on the spot and site monitoring of the project to ensure that the
construction company do the job according to specification or award it to
another competent company to execute it.
Reacting, a site engineer who gave his name simply as Engr.
Akan denied that the company is executing poor quality job. He added that the
company is doing its job according to specifications and that earth work is yet
to commence.
He said, “We are only doing drainage and it is according to
specification. Residents may say what they like, it is not our business. Our
interest is to do work that will stand taste of time.”
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
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