Construction of Enyim-Oju bridge will curb insurgency — Army

The Director of Project, Sappers Engineering Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Saidu Selki Bello said that the construction of the 5 span Enyim Bridge with access road will help to curb and deter any form of insurgency and other criminal activities at the inter boundary axis of the states of Ebonyi and Benue.

Brigadier General Bello, who is the project coordinator of the 5-span bridge, made the disclosure at Enyim community during the flag off of the construction of the bridge by the Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru.

On the security benefit of the project, He stated that whenever there is security concern, if the bridge and roads are constructed to link up the two states, it will enable troops to quickly move in to ensure the protection of lives and property.

“But you can imagine, you are coming over now and you are seeing them advancing on the right side, there’s nothing you can do. You can see, the gap is much. So that will deter, but if the road and the bridge are prepared, it will deter insurgents or any other criminal activities across the two states.

He said that they have been mobilizing all the needed equipment to the site, adding that by next week, the project will commence.

“We’ve been mobilizing to the site. As you can see, it’s a big project. It takes a lot of equipment to mobilize from Abuja, a lot of cost, but we’re almost there. Hopefully, we should start doing the job by next week. So far, we have mobilized up to almost 80%.”

“The duration of the project is between eight and nine months. And this is a five-span bridge project. The gap is about 100 meters, so that implies five spans.

“I think the fixed amount of the project is not an issue, but what we submitted was what was reasonable and was approved by the state government. The aim was not to be profit-minded, but just a little thing to be able to do the work.

Our major task is to ensure that we assist the state in making sure that the work is done at the very least minimal cost. So far, we’ve not had any challenges.

In his address, the Supervisor for Works, Oju Local Government Area of Benue State, Mr. Ogba Issac, said that approximately a total of 40 persons lost their lives in the river annually, as canoes usually capsize in the river.

Our people, our youths, our elders have drowned a lot on this bridge. Our sons and daughters have died inside this river. At times, it is the fault of Canoe. During the rainy season, when the water is high, our people used to die a lot trying to cross the river in Canoe, and it became a problem for us. We thank His Excellency, Governor Francis Nwifuru, for flagging off the construction of this bridge.

Some of our people who drowned in this river were discovered after and buried, while some were not found.

The River just took them like that, and we don’t know where they are till now.

The construction of this bridge will help us a lot in terms of economic and agricultural activities.

The bridge, after construction, will be beneficial not only to the Izzi people, Ebonyi State but also to the Igede people in Benue State. From Abakaliki to Oju, Benue State is less than 38 miles. If you are traveling to Abuja, it is the shortest way. If you cross this bridge to Abuja, in a space of seven hours, you will be in Abuja.

Governor Nwifuru, while flagging off the project, commended the Nigerian Army for accepting to carry out the project for the State Government, adding that the job requires technicalities and commitment.

“I want to thank the Nigerian Army for being resilient, for being committed, for showing strength, for making themselves available, for assuring us that they can do this job, because it’s not an ordinary bridge that is watered every 24 hours.

“So you need some technical experts to do the bridge. And the Nigerian Army, not only that they devote themselves to doing it, but there were a lot of discounts that they did, and they said they are not doing it to make a gain, but they are doing it to help me in safeguarding the lives and property of our great state. And that has been in place.

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