New Telegraph

Restoring joy to Ughelli communities

They have been burdened by the poor state of the bridge for 39 years. They have waited for that long for succour to come to them. Lives have been lost and hopes dashed. But a silver lining has appeared for some communities in the Ughelli area of Delta State as DOMINIC ADEWOLE reports from Asaba

The historic bridge has killed many people. No thanks to its sorry state for 39 years.
Many families will live to remember the damage it has done and the sorrow, tears and blood it has inflicted on those who have escaped death by the whiskers as they survived auto crash or one accident on the bridge..
Its state of dilapidation for decades has retarded economic growth and development in the oil producing areas of Delta State.
For several years, its bad shape had given cover as hideouts for criminal elements to perpetrate their evil.

The abandoned bridge was one of the causes of militant hostilities in the riverine areas of Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.
Successive administrations in the state since 1991 awarded and rewarded it to different contracting firms and abandoned it thereafter.
The bridge is important because it is 100 meters long, 20 meters wide, 45 meters above the water level and 300 meters asphalt road and side drains on both sides of the approach.
But today, the story has changed.

Succour came and joy radiated at Ovwor-Olomu and Effurun-Otor communities when Governor Ifeanyi Okowa declared a state of emergency on it.
Initially, the residents took the Governor’s pronouncement as a political statement but the truth dawned on them when a fresh indigenous contractor rolled out caterpillars, muscled strength and completed it for commissioning last week, after 39 years of abandonment.

When democracy returned in 1999, former Governor James Onanefe Ibori and his successor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan respectively awarded it but failed to complete it.
It is worthy to note that the bridge is closely knitted to the ongoing construction of the Ayakoromo bridge, linking the riverine town to Burutu and Egbo-Ideh communities in Ughelli South Local Government Area, which has become a top priority to the governor again.

The Commissioner for Works in the state, Olorogun James Augoye, after inspecting the Ayakoromo bridge, said the contract was awarded in 2013 as one of the critical infrastructure inherited from the previous administration, with a budgetary provision of N1 billion in the fiscal year 2020. He said it was the only project not affected by the recent downward review of the budget as a result of economic downturn occasioned by prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “More funds would be released to the contractor soon to enable it to mobilise back to site to complete the piling works in the water. The project suffered funding challenges until Governor Okowa assumed office in 2015. With work at 68.5 per cent completed, the project would be up-scaled in 2021 and ensured that it was completed before the end of the administration in 2023.”
He maintained that it was another milestone in achieving the ‘Stronger Delta mantra’ of Okowa-led administration.

He said: “The Ovwor-Olomu project had opened up the economic landscape of both communities. Investors are now free to invest in the area without hindrances. The successful completion of this project is one of the legacy projects of the Okowa administration and we are proud that it is one of the achievements of indigenous engineering in Nigeria.”

While he commended the contractor for his ingenuity in delivering the project, saying the project was one of the success stories of indigenous engineering in the country, the commissioner, who also inspected ongoing construction of access road to new tankers’ park, access road to Warri Refinery and the Depot, Dafiakpor road, off Sedeco Road as well as Ogodogun Street, Off Udu Road, lamented that OMPADEC, under subsequent administrations since 1991 failed to deliver the bridge according to specification.

The Chairman of Obakpor Engineering Construction Company Limited, Chief John Oguma, the firm that completed the bridge, said the company did not betray the confidence reposed in it by Okowa, who he said “mustered the political will to pull the project through.

He said: “Let me say that I am the most fulfilled man today because of the completion of this legacy project. I call it a legacy project because my father is from Ovwor and my mother is from Effurun-Otor and this bridge which was first awarded in 1991 was abandoned by previous administrations.

“I must thank Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for the political will he mustered to pull this project through. The people of both communities and their generations unborn will long remember him for this legacy project.”
Men, women, youths and their children who trooped out in large numbers, dancing to hymns of appreciation to the state government for completing the project, said “at last, God used Okowa to accomplish the bridge of peace in the area.”
The bridge, linking the two communities was first awarded over three decades ago. Successive administrations in the s
tate failed to complete it according to specification as the governor contracted it to Obakpor Engineering Construction Company Limited.

The Chairman of Ayakoromo community, Mr Miekoromo Moses, thanked the governor for the project and appealed for more funding for the project to be completed on time like that of Ovwor-Olomu, maintaining that “Okowa has brought the project to a reasonable level.”

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