By Chioma Onuegbu

AFAHA ATAI— RESIDENTS of Afaha Atai village, Eket Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, have expressed dissatisfaction at the neglect of 3.7 kilometer Iseyeridua Road being handled by an indigenous company based in Rivers state.

Chairman of the community’s council, Chief Samuel Etti, who conducted NDV round the deserted road, lamented that the people have suffered untold hardship following the failure of the contractors to complete the project.

Etti said:  “This road has been abandoned since April, last year. What happened is that it was started in January 2015, but stopped midway. After the contractor constructed the drainage, nothing has happened.  They told us then that NDDC did not pay the contractor, which was why they decided to abandon the project.

“But what I want to emphasize here is that the contractor handling this road project does not have the needed equipment for this job. He hires the equipment he uses for his job and I think that is one of the issues affecting or delaying this project. They even abandoned their pay loader here for the past four months because it broke down.

“We are not happy at the way and manner this road is being handled because it is affecting our people. People hardly use this road to other parts of the community because it has gone so bad. I do not know what will happen if the next rainy season comes and this road is not completed by then.

“We are appealing to the NDDC to come to our help, we are aware that the commission has embarked on rehabilitation of many roads in the state lately, so they should come and complete this one that they have already awarded since,” he said.

A resident of the area, Mr. Bassey Enobong, said, “For me, the state of that road has gone worse than it was before the contractor came back, few months ago. Before they came back,   at least, I used to drive comfortably to my farm with my car, we thought that they came to complete the road having abandoned it for more than one year, but that is not the case from what is on ground.

“And I am most worried because of the pay loader that they abandoned on that road; there is no caution sign to show that something like that is parked there.

“It is dangerous and I do not know why it has not been evacuated. For us residents, it may not pose serious danger because we are aware that it is there, but I am concerned about strangers, who may be driving in the night and do not know that something like that is there,” he asserted.

Afaha Atai youth leader, Monday Mfon,  said the people’s joy and hope of having a good road when they started the road , had been dashed as nobody seemed to understand why the road was still uncompleted after assurance by the contractor,  few months ago.

“We appreciated the NDDC then when the road construction started, but after sometime, they abandoned it and we are not happy. In fact we do not even know what is happening because the management of the construction company, AMACOM, came sometime ago and assured us that they’re coming back to site.

“And they came, but they left without doing anything much. Till today, we have not heard from them or seen them.  We have tried to reach the managing director of the company through his telephone, but he did not pick his calls.

“You can even see the road for yourself; it is nothing to write home about. People living along the road find it difficult to go in and come out from their houses, this is sad, very said,” he added.

Contacted, the Community Liaison Officer, Friday Ndioho, said: “Right now, the company is looking for the next milestone which has not been paid and I believe that once that is done they are going to get back to site. I was told that they have submitted all the paper work for this Road.”

“As the CLO, I have gone to invite the NDDC to come and see the level of work and they assured that they will come. They also told me that the second milestone has not been paid to the contractor.

“They said it is after they must have seen the level of work that they will pay the contractor,” he asserted.