Broveens42:



Is Imo state really a one city state?

so u didn't heard him say okigwe town

sanctity454:


Dan Anyiam stadium

Though there's a new trend for 5 aside pitch establishment in Owerri, everybody won get mini sports arena

that stuff dey give money ohhh

sanctity454:


To me that's the best, an exclusive penthouse won't be a bad idea

yeah

Junction improvement works hits Naze roundabout

More
The junction will take the shape of warehouse junction, and improve the beauty of the city, especially for visitors entering Owerri from Sam Mbakwe airport

Adapalm company has been cleared for export operations

Warehouse junction improvement

sanctity454:
Warehouse junction improvement

how I wish this can be replicated in all roundabouts in the states or even the country at large

seankafor:
how I wish this can be replicated in all roundabouts in the states or even the country at large

Na small small bro, already 7 roundabouts are to take this new shape I wished imsu roundabout was included as well as assumpta intersection also.

I hope the walkway installation is extended to new Owerri district, so that it can compete comfortably with lekki Lagos.

sanctity454:
Warehouse junction improvement

Sincerely, this doesn't look bad at all.

SmartPolician:


Sincerely, this doesn't look bad at all.

All we want is for our state to be developed with it's attended infrastructure, so that we can attract more FDIs

Owerri random

Nice development...

sanctity454:


Na small small bro, already 7 roundabouts are to take this new shape I wished imsu roundabout was included as well as assumpta intersection also.

I hope the walkway installation is extended to new Owerri district, so that it can compete comfortably with lekki Lagos.

hope uzodinma need to work on those flyovers rochas built.

huncho22:
hope uzodinma need to work on those flyovers rochas built.

they need to be demolished because the foundations were poor

huncho22:
hope uzodinma need to work on those flyovers rochas built.

I support you on this, and total reconstruction of spibat road

asha80:
they need to be demolished because the foundations were poor

I don't support demolition, but reconstruction, craneburg can handle it.

A new mini estate in Owerri at Vin Pat Avenue.
The estate comprises of 17 units of 7bedroom duplex

sanctity454:


I support you on this, and total reconstruction of spibat road

I swear that Spibat would be very beautiful If that road is properly constructed.

sanctity454:


I don't support demolition, but reconstruction, craneburg can handle it.

yeah

asha80:
they need to be demolished because the foundations were poor

I don't think so .

sanctity454:
A new mini estate in Owerri at Vin Pat Avenue.
The estate comprises of 17 units of 7bedroom duplex

it looks beautiful

Jara

sanctity454:
A new mini estate in Owerri at Vin Pat Avenue.
The estate comprises of 17 units of 7bedroom duplex

in a rain forest region the concept of trees is truly alien in our thinking

Abuja vibes, sincerely there are only few cities that gives this kind of ambience

Ugly 1960 era construction

asha80:
in a rain forest region the concept of trees is truly alien in our thinking

That's why am happy with OCDA new directive of tree planting.

A major road project in Imo State that has gulped
about N12.7 billion in the past 11 years is yet to
serve its purpose amidst allegations of fraud and use
of substandard materials.

The project has passed through four different
administrations in the state, with each showing
interest in completing it due to the road’s
importance to residents of the oil-producing state.
The project, officially called ‘Dualization of Inner
Ring Road,’ is a double lane road from Egbeada end
of Onitsha road through Amakohia, cutting across
Orji-Okigwe road, to Bishop’s court through
Chukwuma Nwaoha street out to Egbu road.

The 6.1-kilometre road includes two interchange
flyovers at Amakohia and Orji, and a bridge across
Nworie river.


AMAKOHIA FLYOVER

The flyovers, located at Amakohia and Orji, are very
strategic to motorists as they provide easy routes to
Orlu and some parts of Anambra State and also to
Okigwe en-route Abia and Enugu states.

The First Contract
The road project was first awarded in 2010 by the
Ikedi Ohakim administration. The contract for the
construction was awarded to Raycon Construction
Company for N5.6 billion.

The exact amount paid to Raycon out of the contract
sum could not be ascertained as officials involved
declined to speak on the matter. Officials of the
works ministry who spoke off the record claimed
that documents relating to the contract were
destroyed when the works ministry moved its office
to a new one.

Raycon was to complete the contract within four
years. However, one year after the contract was
awarded, a new administration, led by Rochas
Okorocha, came into power.

Mr Okorocha’s administration terminated the
contract in 2011. Findings by this reporter, however,
show that before the contract was terminated,
Raycon had executed a large part of the project. It
completed the sub-structure of the flyovers,
commenced the superstructure, did a part of the
retaining walls but could not complete the remaining
part of the superstructure and the beams.

After the contract was terminated, the project lay
abandoned till 2014 when Governor Okorocha re-
awarded the contract to a separate firm in 2014.

The ‘Completion’
A few weeks before Mr Okorocha was to leave office
in 2019, after completing his two terms as governor,
he declared the road project as completed and
opened it for public use.

Many residents, however, accused the state
government of rushing to ‘complete’ a substandard
project; saying the road and the two flyovers were
structurally deficient. They made reference to floods
that appeared under the flyovers each time it rained
as evidence of the poor job.

Governor Emeka Ihedioha, after assumption of office
in 2019, urged the state chapter of the Nigerian
Society of Engineers (NSE) to carry out an integrity
test on the flyovers.

The test was aimed at determining the structural
suitability of the elements of the bridges, and to look
into the conformity of the construction to the initial
drawings and design.

A team of engineers from the NSE, who carried out
the structural integrity test on the flyovers, said they
were of poor quality and needed to be reconstructed
to avoid a calamity.

The NSE Report
The chairman of the owerri chapter of the NSE,
Innocent Ochiagha, said that when they noticed the
‘poor’ quality of work being done on the flyovers,
the NSE raised an alarm on the defects and wrote to
Governor Okorocha requesting him to provide the
details of the contractors and consultants handling
the project. We never got a reply, he said.

Mr Ochiagha said Governor Ihedioha on the
assumption of office directed the NSE’s integrity
committee to look into the flyovers and other
construction works done by his predecessor.

He described the integrity committee as an ad hoc
committee of the NSE saddled with the responsibility
of inspecting both government and individual
projects to make sure contractors follow rules and
regulations for the safety of the people.

“It is a state technical committee,
which makes sure that rules and
regulations are followed for the
safety of all of us. It is a purely professional body,
we advise from the professional point of view,” he
said.



“A report was sent by that committee. Emeka
ihedioha was ready to act on it, but unfortunately,
the game changed and that report did not see the
light of the day.

“Government should exhume that report. If they
want a fresh one, they can communicate with us,
we can give them a copy. And if they need expert
advice, we will still give them. Our major interest is
the welfare of Imolites,” the engineer said.

The NSE official decried the use of “cheap labour and
quacks” for the construction.

A member of the NSE’s integrity committee,
Emmanuel Ossai, told this reporter that the
committee made an in-depth report on the bridges
and sent its findings and advice to the state
government.

Mr Ossai described the construction as an
engineering aberration, pointing out that the
retaining wall built is the type meant for fencing
which cannot be subjected to heavy loads.

“The bridges have a lot of structural defects, ranging
from the beams, the slabs and the slope of the ramp.
The slope is not good enough because we have what
we call an exciting distance. If you are climbing a
bridge, the driver should be able to see far of the
oncoming vehicles,” he said.

Mr Ossai said some of the defects his team observed
on the bridges include deflections of the beams,
rough finishing of the concrete and faulty alignment.
He also said that the interchange bridges do not meet
up to engineering standards and therefore, are not
good enough for public use.



“Coming to the components of the bridge proper, the
beams are not seated on the bearing, so we have
some level of eccentricity on the beam-bearing
relationship. And again, instead of having two
abutments, one on each side, we have four
abutments. An abutment has its own peculiar design,
you cannot use abutment as a bear that is what we
are seeing at that site. The abutments have already
started having cracks,” he said.

He advised the state government to revisit the
bridges and make corrections by following the initial
design.

Another member of the integrity committee, Ebere
Ononiwu, said the committee used a ‘non-destructive
method of structural integrity test’ for its work.

He said the committee noticed that the flyovers had
cracks and big holes with failed abutments caused as
a result of poor construction technique, non-
compliance with specifications and lack of use of
adequate re-enforcement.

He also said they discovered cracks at the beams due
to excessive deflections.

“We suspected that the previous government used
some marine boards [plywood], to conceal the
deflections at the beams,” he told this reporter.

Mr Ononiwu noted that the comprehensive strength
of the materials used for the construction failed far
below the “BS Code 1-8-1-8 specification” of what the
concrete strength should be.
He said the bearing and the beams were not placed
in proper positions.

“The few structures that could pass according to our
test, were the few structures done by Ohakim.
Virtually all the structural elements introduced by
Rochas (Okorocha) failed. None of them was okay
when compared with the chart shown in the BS
1-8-1-8,” he said.

Mr Ebere said the test result showed that the
infrastructure is not suitable, and needs urgent
repairs or total removal.

Revealing Okorocha’s Contract
When Governor Okorocha re-awarded the contract,
the details were not made public. Many residents
were also unaware of the contractor handling the
project.


FLOOD ON AMAKOHIA FLYOVER

However, the project was one of those investigated
by the judicial panel of enquiry on awards of
contracts, set up by Governor Ihedioa on May 29,
2019, to investigate abandoned and uncompleted
projects in the state, find out how much was paid to
contractors and to what extent the jobs were done.
After Mr Ihedioha was sacked by the Supreme Court
in 2020, his successor, Hope Uzodinma, allowed the
panel to continue its work.

The panel led by Justice Benjamin Iheaka has since
completed its investigations and sent its findings to
the state government.


FLOODED DITCH ON AMAKOHIA FLYOVER

Although the report of the committee has not been
made public, this reporter learnt from a senior
official of the Imo government that the panel found
that the Okorocha administration awarded a N3.7
billion contract to Gosh Projects Limited on February
26, 2014, for the construction of the flyover at
Amakohia. Of the contract sum, N3.6 billion was
reportedly paid upfront.

Similarly, a N3.75 billion contract was reportedly
awarded to the same Gosh Projects Limited on the
same day, February 26, 2014, for the construction of
the Orji flyover. A mobilization fee of N3.5 billion
was also reportedly paid.


FLOODED ON ORJI FLYOVER

In other words, the Okorocha administration paid
N7.1 billion for the project, a large part of which had
been constructed by the previous contractor who
charged N5.6 billion for the entire project.

Contractor Speaks
When this reporter contacted Gosh Projects Limited
through its official phone number, the person who
took the call refused to disclose his identity. He
declined to say anything on the project saying his
company had already appeared before the
government panel.

‘’Every discussion on the contract we had in the
administration of Rochas Okorocha have been
deposited with the judicial panel of enquiry, our
position is well spelt out, we specified what we did
and what we did not do,” the official said.

“The ring road, we did not do. We didn’t do
anything on the ring road. Nobody paid me that kind
of money. These are our positions. It has not
changed. That was what we told them at the judicial
panel of enquiry,” he said.

The official also queried the amount the panel found
that the Okorocha administration paid for the
project.

“When you say you paid someone, then you have to
show it. Is it by mouth that they pay? You don’t pay
by mouth,” he said. He, however, refused to disclose
the exact amount his firm got from the Imo
government for the project.


DEEP HOLE ON ORJI FLYOVER

When contacted, Mr Okorocha’s spokesperson,
Samuel Onwuemedo, refused to speak on the
amount spent on the project by his principal and the
quality of work done.

He said there are court cases relating to the project
and so he would not want to speak about it.

“As a media man, I cannot talk on issues before the
court. These issues are in about four courts, about
two courts in Abuja, one in Port Harcourt and one in
owerri,” he said without providing details of the
court cases.

Current Imo Government Speaks
The present commissioner for works in Imo, Ralph
Nwosu, who was also the works’ commissioner
when ex-governor Ohakim first awarded the
contract for the road, said he could not defend the
quality of work done and would not speak on the
finances of the project.

“I was the commissioner for works that started that
project, but when they finished it, I was not here. So
I am not in a position to say anything about it,” he
told this reporter.

Mr Nwosu confirmed that the Integrity Committee of
the NSE gave a verdict that the bridges do not pass
the integrity test and are not fit for public usage. He
said people plying the flyover do so at their own risk.

“We have also contacted some contractors to go and
look at it and see what can be done. If at the end of
the day, there are things we can do to reduce the
traffic that will go on it, so that we have light
vehicles ply on it without compromising the security
of the people, we will do it,” he said.

Transporters, Residents lament
Residents, who should have benefited from the road
project, have continued to lament the situation.

When this reporter visited the flyover at Orji, it was
barricaded to avoid motorists plying on it. There was
a gridlock caused by vehicles trying to make a u-turn
and flooding due to the heavy downpour.

The chairman, Imo transport workers, Orji branch,
Chika Nkewrem, said the people were excited when
the flyovers were ‘completed’, with the belief that it
would ameliorate the long hours they spent on the
road due to traffic congestion.


GIRD LOCK AT ORJI FLYOVER

He lamented the current situation where motorists
are barred from using the flyover.

“If you come here in the morning or in the evening
time, you will see that this Orji road is a no go area
because of the traffic congestion. People now look for
a way to manoeuvre to make it to their destination.

Since the flyover has not been in operation, it has
not been easy for us,” he said.

Mr Nkwerem called on the state government to
facilitate the reopening of the flyovers to ease their
suffering.

Another transporter, Joseph Adimekwe, decried the
flooding experienced around the bridge whenever it
rains.

“If you are here when rain is falling, no road. The
rains come from the flyover and join the ones on the
ground. Everywhere is flooded,” he said.


ORJI FLYOVER

Mr Adimekwe said the flood also brings dirt from
different places and heaps under the bridge thereby
blocking some parts of the road and hindering free
movement.

It was a different scenario at the second flyover, in
Amakohia, when this reporter visited as the flyover
was in use and there was no traffic jam.

An auto engineer, Ikechukwu Okoh, commended the
past governors for their efforts in constructing the
flyover, although he described it as “substandard.”

He called on the present administration to find a
way of improving the standard of the bridge.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/470929-special-report-imo-road-flyovers-cost-n12-billion-in-11-years-but-remain-uncompleted.html

sanctity454:
Adapalm company has been cleared for export operations

Na actually good news

Nedu05:
ChineduAlaegbu see how governor Uzodimma house was burnt to the ground. Imo state is cursed. No security and no development in Imo state

Calm down, Imo state is not cursed will never be

sanctity454:


I hope that the ongoing high-rise building at okigwe road turns out to be mixed used building, it success will spur massive redevelopment of properties along wetheral road and bank road starting from Rochas plaza.

High rise?? How many storeys high?

Bon hotels group will be adding two more hotels in Imo state, one in Owerri called bon residence with 80 room capacity, and a holiday resort at oguta lake. This is a big one for oguta ameshi people like our brother Abagworo