…Inspects ongoing road, town hall construction
By: Felix Ikpotor
The member representing Rivers State on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Chief Tony Okocha has assured people of Rumuigbo Community in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the state of more projects if they remain peaceful cooperate with contractors working in the community.
Okocha made the promise when he visited the community to inspect ongoing construction of Nkpolu- Rumuigbo internal road and a town hall by the Commission.
He said the Commission decided to embark on the project based on the needs assessment of the community.
Okocha who also hails from Rumuigbo said the poor condition of the road has been a source of worry to people of the community before the intervention of the NDDC.
” I just told you that NDDC does projects that is based on needs assessment. We agreed that projects will be executed based on needs assessment. The major problem that this community had was the problem of road. It’s terrible if you pass here when the rains set in especially on this axis.
“What we are doing here is to first and foremost do concrete pavements and after then, we can now do asphalt inwhich case no matter the volume of water, we have saved the road forever. But I can say to you that when it rains heavily, it’s no longer the issue of mud and mashy, it’s about the level of water. When this drainage is overflown, it comes back to the road.
“Our business now is to give a permanent solution to Rumuigbo internal road which hitherto has been impassable and you can see what we are doing, no compromise on standard, the road is going to last forever,” he said.
While appreciating the community for allowing work to go on smoothly on the projects, the board member said: ” The people have been very corporative because I had a meeting with them and the contractor and I announced to them that as much as I agree that the contractor plays along local content, that the contractor will not give out such contracts at the peril of the job. We have not recorded even the minutest problem here, if the community remains this peaceful, many other things will come”.
Okocha also expressed satisfaction with the level of work done on the multi-purpose hall.
“This project was started barely two months ago and you can see the speed and the precision of the contractor handling the project and I also use this opportunity to thank NDDC and particularly the seventh governing board of the NDDC where I represent my people.
“What we are doing in all our projects is based on needs assessment. This place was almost like an eyesore but you see the location and importance of the hall to the people because it’s about the gathering of the people, so we decided to give them something here and not only give them something but go above the specification and I pleaded with the office to give them a one storey building.
“I’m very impressed with the contractor, his speed, his precision and the dedication,” he stated.
