By Frank Ulom
The management of SERMATECH Nigeria Limited has said the construction company has the full capacity and resources to execute any job in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by a statement signed by Bogus Aiks, Public Relations officer of SERMATCH on Sunday and made available to THE PARADISE NEWS.
The company was responding to reports credited to a group known as Cross River South Consultative Forum which called for the revocation of contracts awarded for the construction of some portions of Calabar-Itu road.
According to the statement, “Some stakeholders have raised eyebrows concerning the quality of jobs being executed there, pointing fingers at SERMATECH.
“While we agree that citizens have a right to monitor projects being executed in their domain and express concern where they find lapses in the project’s execution, it also behoves the citizens to carry out proper investigations on the state of the projects, who is doing what and how.
“However, we are not joining issues with anybody. We wish to state categorically that SERMATECH Nigeria Limited is an indigenous Construction giant with an established track record of over 20 years in the industry, and has a track record of successfully delivering on its mandate to all clients.
“SERMATECH has always executed all contracts awarded to it with full compliance to scope and specifications. SERMATECH has the full capacity and resources to execute any job in Nigeria.”
On the work done by SERMATECH in Cross River, the statement said: “We did 67km from Iyamoyong to Akpet 1 successfully. We are currently rehabilitating from Akpet 1 to Odupkani Junction – 25 out of 75km has been completed. Paucity of funds from the federal government is the cause of the delay.
“We equally wish to state that the rehabilitation of Alesi-Ugep has never been abandoned. SERMATECH mobilised to the site in 2014 and commenced work even before we were mobilised.”
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Adding that, “Since we commenced work in the Odukpani-Itu Road, no section within our stretch of work has collapsed. This is because we carry out palliative work continually to ensure the free flow of traffic.
“We wish to point out that our project spans two critical swamps namely, the Okpokong swamp and the Calabar River swamp.
“The Okpokong swamp is 5km. This section is fully constructed with pavements work up to the binder course layer. Motorists are already enjoying the smooth road. It has survived more than two years now without issues.
“Active work is ongoing at the Calabar River swamp. The section is actively receiving adequate geotechnical treatment; subsoil drainage to lower the groundwater table, excavation and removal of unsuitable materials, hardcore filling, and sand fill to stabilise the section.
“Out of the 4 bridges in our section, we have fully constructed and completed 2, Atan and Okpokong bridges, respectively. The third bridge, Ayadeghe, is at the capping beam level; all precast beams are completed and the two abutment walls are completed.
“The four existing old bridges have also been rehabilitated to have a new look.
“We state that SERMATECH’s portion of the road is about 28km and not 50km as wrongly reported and the portion being mentioned is not within SERMATECH’s purview, but rather a different company.”
Aiks further pointed out that SERMATECH is not the only company involved in the project, stressing that, “SERMATECH had, twice, carried out palliative interventions on the portion of the road when traffic collapsed even though it is not under its purview all in a bid to ameliorate the suffering of commuters and other road users.
“Already, we have again commenced palliative work on our portion of the road to ease access for motorists and other road users as we approach the Yuletide. This is in line with Federal Ministry of Works directives that federal roads be made motorable this season.
“We call on stakeholders and other agencies to get proper information from project stakeholders such as Federal Ministry of Works or NNPC in order not to mislead the public.”
