Ruth Nworie
Motorists and residents of parts of Port Harcourt that connects the abandoned ring road project in the Rivers State capital have pleaded with the state governor, Sim Fubara, to compel construction giants, Julius Berger, to return to site and continue with the road project.
The road was abandoned after Julius Berger sought and failed to get a variation for a project they had received who do business The suffering of people passing through Eneka Road in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, every day for their daily business activities is unbearable.
The project has a length of 50.15km, with 45 km dual carriageway, 4.8km of six flyovers and a 350m river-crossing bridge and costs N195.3 billion.
The state government paid 77 per cent of the cost, totalling about N150billion as mobilisation, with the governor assuring that the balance would be paid once 75 per cent of the project had been done.
But it is not clear if Julius Berge completed 75 per cent of the job before asking for variation during the emergency rule regime, under Ibok-Ette Ibas. During his reign, Ibas had vowed to compel Julius Berger to respect the contract terms and go back to site. But he failed till the day he left the state.
With the return of Fubara to office, the residents are now pleading with him to ensure that Julius Berger returned to site, as they were suffering as a result of the abandoned road which is designed to pass through Port Harcourt, Okrika, Eleme, Echie, Ikwerre and Obia-Akpor local governments.
TNN reporter went to the Eneka section of the road and spoke with some of the residents and riders of tricycles, popularly called keke. Mrs. Esther, a POS operator said “It’s very challenging. The stand where I stay to do my business, when the rain becomes serious and the road users can’t pass the major road, they turn to use the back of where I am doing business, and that is dangerous.”
She also narrated a situation that happened on Sunday, where a nursing mother inside a tricycle fell into the water as a result of the bad road. That incident traumatized her as a woman, and she said she didn’t know if the baby would survive after falling inside the flood water.
When asked what she wanted the governor to do to reduce their suffering, she said the governor should use his good office to facilitate the road work, and that because of the bad road, Keke people now charged more than they should.
Another road user, Mr Bright Sunday, who was in the area to fix his car tyre said “the suffering is too much”, and narrated how he witnessed a bike man carrying a bag of garri fall that fell into the bad water.
Mr. Michael, a tricycle rider, spoke bitterly about how the road was affecting his keke business. He said he could not drive his tricycle everywhere because he was avowing the bad road. He said he would visit the mechanic on a daily basis because of the damage to his keke. He called on Fubara to make haste and bring Julius Berger back to the site.
Only last week, the NUJ in Rivers State issued a statement after its monthly meeting, calling the governor’s attention to the state of the ring road project and urged him to intervene.
