Months into the reconstruction of roads leading to Apapa port, residents including business owners and women in that area have expressed anger and disappointment at the pace and level of the reconstruction work.
Speaking with our correspondent in Apapa, some of residents said that with the pace of work, the reconstruction will definitely go beyond the stipulated 18months which was promised by the government.
One of the road users who pleaded anonymity said that for the past three months since the government started the reconstruction work, the contractors have been at a particular spot.
“I am a clearing agent and I come to this Apapa almost on a daily basis. I must tell you that since they started this reconstruction like three months ago, they have been at this particular spot just close to that Area ‘B’ Police station. They have not done anything just digging holes and they have been causing a lot of traffic”
He also blamed the government for not giving out the contract to a known construction company that can work day and night with good equipments to ensure that the construction is finished on time.
………..“I don’t even know why the government didn’t give out the contract to Julius Berger. If they had given the contract to them before the end of this year, the will finish the whole work. Now that they are at a particular spot for this number of months, tell me how they will be able to complete the road before the given time. The government should please do something about that” he said.
Another road user who gave his name as Mr. John Samson, said that lives of residents and road users in the area are at risk due to the delay in the road reconstruction.
“Our lives are at risk here because of this delay in the road reconstruction. You will agree with me here that almost on a quickly daily bases there are cases of containers falling off the truck here in Alabama and other ports link roads. And now they have permanently blocked one lane forcing both the trucks with containers, public transports, private and even motorcycles to be using only one lane. The situation is also causing untold hardship and stress to people. A movement that is supposed to take say an hour now takes hours and the contractors are not even doing any serious work there”
He also urged the government to conduct inspection to ascertain the level of work that have been done on the road.
“It is ideal for the government to carry out inspection and check on the construction to know if the contractor is doing well or not. It’s not just asking them to be working there should also be a away that the government will be checking them to know if they are doing what is in the plan. I will also advice the government to ensure that these contractors are properly paid. Because when you didn’t pay your worker, you lack the moral justification to assess the performance”
He reteirated that due to the dirty nature of the road, people whose offices are at Apapa do not normal lying go to work especially when it rains.
Meanwhile speaking recently in an interview with our Correspondence, the Apps Chapter Chairman of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders(NAGAFF) Dr Fredrick Ajuzie said that there is need for residents and road users in the area to exercise some patience with the contractors for them to be able to do a good and thorough job.
He also expressed his confidence with the contractors saying that he believes they will do a good job.
“To me I will plead for us to give this contractors enough time to do the work. This is just three months since they started the work. If they have spent a lot of time in a particular spot, that means that spot is the worst and after the place the work will move faster. If it will take the contractors time to do a good and thorough job, there is need for residence, they are professionals and I believe that they will so a good job there” he concluded.
It will be recalled that in a meeting earlier this year, the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA), Dangote group amongst other s decided to sponsor the reconstruction of the Apps roads which was estimated to cost over N4billion and will last for 18months.
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