The Anambra State Commissioner for Works, Ifeanyi Okeoma, has affirmed that the collapsed Ochanja Road, Woliwo, Onitsha, is still under construction.
Okeoma, who visited the part of the road reportedly eroded by heavy rainfall on Tuesday, said the contractor was applying the last bit of asphalt on the paver when it started to rain, and the base course on which the asphalt was laid was wet.
The visit by the commissioner and his team, along with the contractors, followed a viral video indicating that a 20-minute rainfall on Monday, had “washed off” the road newly inaugurated about a week ago by the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo.
The voice in the video said, “The ‘Dubai-Taiwan’ Ochanja market road in Onitsha constructed with billions of Anambra taxpayers’ money has just been washed away by just one episode of 20 minutes of rainfall on Monday 25th of March 2024. The rainfall exposed the nature of poor quality jobs executed by the government.”
Reacting during the visit, Okeoma described the video as an “affront” to obstruct the works of the state government, adding that nothing of that kind ever happened.
He said, “Every one of us is here on this road, and you can see that nothing happened at all. We actually saw the video last night, and first thing this morning, we came here to find out that nothing like that happened as you can see for yourself.
“The contractor worked on Sunday and closed for the day and he stopped at a small portion that is about one foot and there was a heavy downpour and the base was blocked and that point is about one foot that got washed off.
“As you can see, we are all standing on the stone base material that was primed so we are shocked at that mischievous video sponsored by the opposition to throw spanners into the good works of the state government and as you can see work is in progress.”
However, it was gathered that Ochanja Road was among the roads recently inaugurated by the governor as part of activities to mark his second anniversary in office.
Our correspondent also observed that the washed portion of the road had been cleared away by the contractor on the site and blocked as traders were seen carrying out economic activities on the entire stretch of road.
Speaking to our correspondent in separate interviews, some residents lamented that despite paying billions of taxpayers’ money to execute the job, the result still came out “poor and shoddy,” contrary to their expectations.
One of the residents, Ijeoma Okeke, a trader along the affected road, said that the road has a dual water carriage on both sides of the road, yet flood washed the asphalt away.
Okeke said the road was constructed with drainages on both sides, which makes it easy for water to flow freely, yet the newly asphalted road was washed away.
She said, “Another means of wasting taxpayers’ money, what will happen again when it rains again, the contractors should be questioned. Thank God the contractor is still on site. He will see the shoddy job done by him.”
Another resident, Uche Ikem, lamented that the affected road was inaugurated last week, and the very first downpour washed the asphalt away with ease.
The road was one of the roads opened by our governor, and the first rain after it was built washed the surface away.
“I am worried that the entire road will not endure, i wanted our governor to summon the contractor for questioning,” he added.
The road project is 2.3km and so far, up to 1. 7 km of the project has been done. The project, except for the water fountain, would also include street lights and a spacious water drainage system that empties into a larger canal to safeguard the road and the market from flooding and protect the goods owned by traders.
