From Idongesit Inyang
CROSS RIVER
As part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to its host community, Sermatech Nigeria Limited, a road construction giant has said it has intervened in a bad spot at One Man village, after Okoyong junction along the Itu-Odukpani highway.
The bad portion had rendered commuters and other road users stranded for about three days before the intervention.
Speaking to Journalists at the spot of the failed road, a representative of the company, Ento Edako, explained that Sermatech had to deployed its staff all night to work on the bad spot in its resolve to unlock the gridlock and put smiles on the faces of the road users.
Edako assured that the intervention by Sermatech will last longer even amidst rains, as relevant materials and equipment including stone base and laterite were used, unlike what was done by the sister company that did to the failed portion.
He said, “we cannot be doing our job joyfully while seeing commuters and other road users stranded here, just because it wasn’t our job portion.”
According to Edako, “this particular portion of the road was under the purview of Julius Berger, but Sermatech had to intervene in order to ease the gridlock, while ameliorating the pains of commuters who are always left stranded for days and nights here.
“The bad portion handled by a foreign company, Julius Berger, failed leaving commuters, traders, and those conveying corpses to their destined areas, to weep bitterly.”
Midweek Pioneer gathered that a heavy duty trucks and vehicles recently fell on the bad portion, rendering commuters and other road users stranded, occasioned by the alleged negligence of the construction company handling the said portion.
Touched by this, Sermatech Nigeria Limited, not minding her job schedule, had to intervene at the said portion, which is outside its job scope, by embarking on remediation job all the nights.
A transporter, Michael Anya, who was conveying a corpse from Uyo to Ogoja in Cross River, commended the efforts of Sermatech for intervening in the said bad portion.
According to Anya, “These foreign companies are not worth doing business with, we have our indigenous contractors that know our soil too well and know the job very well, government should use them and stop patronizing these foreign contractors that only come to enrich themselves while leaving us in abject penury.”
To Silas Effiom Otu, an indigene of Odukpani, “sometimes I wonder why our government will leave indigenous companies only to patronize foreign companies on roads that our people can adequately handle.”
Otu wondered if the foreign companies are cheap or government believe in the big name, advising, “We should go for ours and get best results, see now that it has failed, where is the foreign company that handled it?
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