…Says government will no longer tolerate damages on its roads
From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Rivers State government has decried the indiscriminate parking of trucks owned by BUA Group by their drivers on public roads in parts of the State, who are unperturbed by the continuous damages being done to the roads.
State Commissioner for Works, George-Kelly Dakorinama Alabo and his counterpart in the Ministry of Transport, Jacobson Nbina, expressed the condemnation when they conducted newsmen to sections of roads where the trucks were parked indiscriminately.
The roads included the Azikiwe Road where the BUA Sugar Refinery is located in Port Harcourt Local Government Area, the Igwuruta and Igwurutali communities in Ikwerre Local Government Area where BUA has its off factory operational base and Diesel yard with the grave damage done to the entire shoulders of the roads including the lanes.
Alabo said the State government spends billions of naira yearly to provide critical road infrastructure, but BUA Group, a company that does not add value to the state in terms of providing Corporate Social Responsibility will damage existing roads.
The works commissioner pointed out that the trucks parked took over the road, occupying about three kilometres length of the road and do so in disregard to extant laws that prohibits such acts.
According to him: “it is public knowledge that Rivers State government spends billions of naira every year, labour very hard to provide critical infrastructure to our people. This BUA Group has been so reckless, the drivers of BUA Group have been so irresponsible that they have converted our major roads as parks.”
He noted that the Igwuruta road was one major route leading to the international airport and other states, lamenting that further damages as being witnessed will create unwholesome hardship for the people.
On his part, Commissioner for Transport, Nbina, said in February, 2023, BUA Group was invited to a meeting with the Secretary to the State government (SSG), the Ministries of Transport and Urban Development where commitment was extracted that BUA would cease using public roads as parks, but had reneged on it.
He said it was shocking to see the mindless damages being done to the roads by the company with their trucks, adding that the government will no longer tolerate such acts.
