Anambra: Agulu-Nnewi-Okija road project to be completed in 12 months -Contractor

---

---

By Madu Obi

The contractor handling the N38 billion Agulu - Nnewi - Okija road dualization in Anambra State has said that the project would be completed in 12 months.

This came as some residents of Nnewi have become sceptical about the project as they fear that the present administration might not complete the work by the end of his tenure.

The contractor, who was awarded the Agulu to Nnewi Roundabout portion of the project, has vowed that his company will never fail, assuring that he has the capacity to execute the contract as entered.

“We learnt that money for the contract has been made available. His Excellency doesn’t say one thing and do another. He is a man of his words", he said.

The contractor said there will be street lights and trees planted at the middle of the new roads when completed, “Dr Atuenyi concluded.

It was gathered that the concern of residents living along the axis is whether the project would be executed with dispatch and whether the issue of compensation to the property owners after demolition to make way for the road construction would be properly handled.

"From all indications, many buildings and shanties will go and a lot have already gone with nothing said to the owners for now", the concerned citizen said.

Speaking on the issue, the President-General of Nzuko-Ora Nnewi (Nnewi town union), Dr Maduaka Atuenyi, however, said the property owners would be compensated and that the project.

He said that information available to him indicated that there would be compassionate compensation to proper building owners, and not shanties

“I have just had a meeting with the contractors handling the project. The contract is divided into two. The contractor handling the project from Agulu to Nnewi Roundabout is different from the one working from Nnewi Roundabout to Okija.

The contractors have assured us that the project will not stop halfway.

We told them that our lives will be in danger and that our people can lynch us if after destroying their property, the project is not completed. They gave use double assurance that there won’t be any failure, “he said.

The PG said that he has insisted that the contract should be completed on schedule and should not be abandoned.