Rivers Ring Road: What Julius Berger Failed To Do
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
Internal roads in communities where the ring road project undertaken by the Rivers State government passes through has become a sorry sight, as the construction giants, Julius Berger, which is handling the ring road project, refused to provide alternative routes for commuters before embarking on the major project.
The ring road construction had forced Julius Berger to barricade portions of the road near areas where flyovers are being constructed, to allow the workers concentrate, but the company never made any provision for alternatives.
Commuters are therefore forced to use any available community streets, most of which were already in very bad shapes and have become worse as a result of the increasing number of vehicles that use those streets.
This was part of what made the Rukpokwu youths to stage a protest on Monday; the other reason being the clamour for the company to employ them as casual workers.
While the company is believed to have resolved the issue of engaging the youths at the Rukpokwu flyover site, it is yet to provide alternative routes at any of the points where they blocked roads.
For example, communities like Eneka and Rukpokwu, where flyover construction is on-going, some of the alternate routes have collapsed. The Eneka; Rumuogunuoma, Rumuwule, Rumuowegwu, Ogbunabali roads are in terrible state.
For Rukpokwu, internal roads in Elikpokwu-odu and Rumuapu have gone gory; the only manageable routes being the Eledo road.
Speaking with newsmen during Monday’s peaceful demonstration, the Rukpokwu Youth President-General, Mr. Iwezor Lucky Ibemere had demanded an end to unemployment and neglect.
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Expressing how unemployment and neglect can be eliminated, Iwezor said, “we the youths have come out in our numbers to demonstrate peacefully on the ills that have been going on in our community, especially since the company; Julius Berger resumed work.
“It’s going to almost a year now that they started this work of ring road here in Rukpokwu flyover 3 and that of Elikpokwu-odu which happens to be the 60 Angels Road, and up till date, we are yet to be given our right to employment.
“The internal roads that are in Rukpokwu that people are using as a result of the blockage in this Rumuapu-Eneka Road and then that of the 60 Angels Road, since they blocked it the little internal roads we have they have condemned it as a result of high traffic.”
The youth president noted that “our demands today are very clear and simple, just two demands; give us jobs, there is nobody who is of Rukpokwu youths that is working and the flyover is almost reaching completion.
“That of the internal roads we have local content and we don’t know what is happening to this local content. We have able youths that can also do this work that Julius Berger people are doing but they have refused to recognize us.
“They should also fill up those routes for us or probably grade it so that it will make movement easier. These are our demands and that is why we embarked on this peaceful protest.”
Also speaking, the Chief Liaison Officer of Elikpokwu-odu, Ephraim Mgbakiri noted that the protest followed the neglect by Julius Berger as regards employment and maintenance of alternative routes haven blocked the flyover area of the road.
Mgbakiri explained that “the youths are here to ask that they be employed and that part of the section of the road be maintained to enable free of traffic.”
Staff of Julius Berger who was present when the aggrieved youths arrived was the Senior Security Officer of Port Harcourt branch, Mr. Emmanuel Obasri.
He explained in an interview that, “to my surprise I saw the way the youths came out but the beautiful thing is that they were not violent, they pressed home their demands.
“When I met with them, especially the youth president, with the crowd that came with him, with the help of one of the CLOs, they promised me they were going to have discussion, that’s the little I can say, there was no violence.”
