BY CHIDI NKWOPARA, OWERRI.

Some passersby narrowly escaped instant death when the new gate currently under construction at the Lobo Extension/Wetheral Road junction, Owerri, collapsed.

People were seen in groups at the scene of the near disaster, discussing the incident and praising God for saving the innocent lives of the citizens that would have been consumed in the crash.

Some of the residents of the area cursed the contractor for allegedly doing a shoddy job of the assignment and pleaded with the government to properly monitor what the contractors were doing to avert endangering people’s life.

A commercial Keke operator, Sunny Kalu-Uka, thanked God that no life was lost but expressed fear that some of the contractors were using sub-standard materials for the jobs.

“I won’t be surprised if the contractors may not have the required expertise for the jobs assigned to them to execute. We would have been singing the requiem of innocent Nigerians if the gate had collapsed when people were close by”, Kalu-Uka reasoned.

All efforts by our Correspondent to reach any government functionary to speak on the matter, failed as all the people Vanguard called neither picked their phones nor returned the call at press time