Disquiet as Rain Washes Away week-old Road at Onitsha Market
By Praise Chinecherem
Residents of Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of Anambra State have raised the alarm as rainfall lasting about 20 minutes on Monday reportedly washed away newly laid ashpalts at Ochanja market in Onitsha South local government area.
The road constructed by Governor Chukwuma Soludo led administration lasted barely one week before the incident.
A viral video posted by netizen, Onyebuchi Nwafor, showed a section of the road where the coated asphalts piled out with pieces scattered and water-logged on some parts of the road.
A voice on the video expressed concern over the poor and shoddy job the administration is executing despite paying billions of taxpayers money for the projects.
A post accompanying the video, partly read: “Wonders they say shall never happen, but unfortunately, it happened.
“Prof Chukwuma Soludo’s one week old Road washed away in a split second.
“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 rainfall on Monday, 25th of March, 2024
“The rainfall exposed the nature of poor quality jobs executed by the government.
“Just a few weeks ago, at the same Ochanja Market, a storey-building under construction by the same government collapsed, killing an unknown number of people.
“By the time the rainfall is fully established in June, more poorly executed construction by the Anambra State Government could be laid bare for the blind to see.”
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) and former Governorship candidate in Anambra State, Mr Valentine Ozigbo, had expressed worry over quality of the roads being constructed by Governor Soludo administration.
Ozigbo had described the construction companies handling most of the road projects in the state as “Soludo and Sons” in reference to their lack of expertise.
Meanwhile, the state government was yet to react to the video as at press time.