The Abia state government says the earlier plan to commission the Osisioma flyover in Aba on/before May 29, will not hold.
The Honourable Commissioner for Works in the state, Barrister Bob Ogu, said this in an audience interactive programme ‘Open Parliament’ on Love FM, monitored by AF-NEWS.
The Commissioner cited the recent attack by armed robbers on a Chinese man, who is the contractor of the flyover project.
He said;
“ if you come to the flyover, that’s why I tell people that when you give dates, you also make room for unforeseen circumstances. We had projected that by May 29, that we will complete the flyover.
“Don’t forget that that flyover is situated on a federal highway, so the two lanes on both sides are being handled by Arab contractors and we don’t have control over them.
“We wanted to complete the ones that affects us. If you take your mind back to what happened last week, a white man was attacked by robbers, that’s the man building that flyover.
“So of course there’s no way he will have that kind of incident and he will still be here. So the man has gone back to Abuja and they are still gauging the security situation before they can come back to start .
“They put the whole company in disarray, his driver was killed, the mopol that was with him was also killed, and for himself, he ran for his dear life and he was in a state of shock for a number of days.
“So these are unforeseen circumstances that can delay the completion of certain projects but let it be known that we are working on that project and we will definitely deliver it”.
On when the contractor is likely to return to continue the flyover, the Commissioner said;
“we have at least tried to make the company understand that the white man was not the target, it was a robbery incident. But the belief generally was that the white man was the target.
“The same company that is handling that is the same that is handling the one in Ebonyi state and the white man there was also attacked in Ebonyi. In fact, before this one here was attacked, he had already started telling me that their company was already thinking of moving their whites out from this place.
” You know these Chinese they always want to supervise their work themselves, they don’t want to hand over the thing to anybody and when you entered into a contract with somebody, you allow the person to run the contract.
“There was heightened anticipation that something could happen so he was being cautious and at the end of the day, that thing he feared happened. So to convince any of them to come back now, they will tell you wait lets see what is happening.”
What’s the government doing in terms of beefing up security around expatriates doing construction works in the state? he said;
“If you ask me, like I’ve told my colleagues that have policemen around them, its not safe to move around with policemen. If you want security, just place security in your hands and move around. Once God is on your side, nothing will happen to you.”
He assured that apart from the project being handled by the Chinese man, other projects which are handled by locals will continue.
Reacting to the illegal dumping of refuse on drainage especially in Aba, the Commissioner regretted that most people have turned the newly fixed drainage into dumping grounds. He cited a situation where someone bore a hole on a brand new drainage system in Aba.
“ we are trying to jack up things because all our efforts to make people desist from such acts has fallen on deaf ears. So we are trying to make laws to prosecute offenders. We have set up a task-force to monitor all the drains.
“We are trying to establish a law to make everyone take responsibility on every property belonging to the government.”
Bob said a team has been sent to arrest the persons who dug a whole on the newly constructed drain in Aba. He said the location is a mechanic workshop and the team are waiting patiently so that everyone involved will be arrested at the same time.
