By Richard Elesho/ Lokoja
A multi million Naira bridge constructed in Kogi State has collapsed about a week after it was completed. The Kogi State Government has frowned at the development insisting the Contractor must reconstruct the bridge.
People had hoped the construction of the Ozulla bridge in the central Senatorial district of the State would bring a permanent end to their frustrations on the bridge. But collapsed days after it was completed.
The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, raised the alarm on the collapsed bridge on Tuesday. In a statement signed by its State Director, Media and Communication Comrade Dayo Onibiyo, the party said the Ozuma bridge in Okengwe, Okene was alleged to have been constructed with substandard materials that gulped several millions of naira.
He said the bridge is another wasteful scheme better described as a conduit pipe that had exposed road users’ lives to unnecessary dangers.
“We, therefore, advise Yahaya Bello to borrow a leave from the PDP in the state on how it successfully completed the notorious Meme bridge and others without exposing the lives of good people to any danger,” he advised.
He called on the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) to come to the aid of the people of Kogi State to investigate the failed bridge to avoid other impending dangers to human lives arising from the construction of substandard projects and to ensure that standards are complied with.
“We are afraid that the ongoing flyover under construction at Ganaja junction, Lokoja is a heavy risk…if a mere bridge can collapse under a week of its assumed completion by the same government,” according to the statement.
Reacting to the failed bridge in Ozuma, the state’s commissioner for works and housing, Engineer Abubakar Ohiere, dismissed the allegations raised by the PDP in the state, saying it is untrue.
He explained that the collapsed bridge was due to the overzealous act of the company’s truck driver who violated the curing period of the project.
Ohiere stressed that all necessary standards were observed, saying the collapse was not as a result of engineering failure.
The Commissioner vowed that the bridge would be reconstructed by the company.