Residents of Anambra State have continued to knock Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led government over the collapse of an ongoing drainage channel constructed on Niger Street in Fegge, Onitsha.
The ongoing project collapsed as a result of heavy rainfall on Thursday night.
In a now-viral video made by a resident, the drainage, which is yet to be completed was already damaged.
NIGERIACRIME observed that the resident complained bitterly and described the ongoing construction work as substandard.
The individual in the video said, “Look at the kind of road that Governor Chukwuma Soludo is building for us, just one rainfall in Onitsha, and the road has been washed off, while the drainage has collapsed.
“Soludo has been saying he will turn Anambra into Dubai Taiwan. Is this how he will turn Anambra into Dubai Taiwan? Just see the road, it is just red earth, no cement at all.”
A visit to the site on Friday unraveled mixed reactions by residents.
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While the governor and his team got a knock for allegedly using substandard materials for the project, some residents backed Soludo, insisting that the rains came down unannounced, on the same date that the work was done.
Speaking on the development, a woman in the area who identified as Nkem Nwanolue said, “The contractor is still on the site, and no one has declared the project completed. The concrete cast takes a minimum of seven days to cure and about 21 days to fully stabilise.
“That very gutter on Niger Street had neither cured nor stabilised before the rains of that very day, and anyone who knows Onitsha knows the volume of flood that greets every rainfall. The contractor, even from that very video recording, is still very much on site.
“Dubai, as it is today, as it is today did not happen in 13 months (Soludo has spent 13 months in office) and certainly not with the kind of bitter soul that made that video. Soludo is very much on course and will never be distracted by the tantrums of politically bitter people.”
In his own view, another resident, Mr. Godwin Okeke, blasted Soludo and his team for handling the project shabbily and insisted that the incident occurred due to poor supervision on the part of government officials, a team of engineers, and contractors handling the project.
“What happened showed that the materials used are substandard. If they have applied enough cement during the casting of the drainage, it would not have washed off,” Okeke added.