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| A portion of the Calabar-Itu road constructed by SEMARTECH |
Ukorebi Esien | 3rd November 2023
CALABAR – SERMATECH Nigeria Limited has asserted its capability to fulfill its mandate, citing successful contract executions across the state. Calabar Parrot can authoritatively report.
A statement by Bogus Aiks, the PR officer, the company addresses concerns raised by stakeholders about job quality. Recall that The Cross River Southern Consultative Forum had accused SEMATECH of substandard work, prompting a call for a corruption probe by the Minister of Works.
In response, SEMATECH denies corruption allegations and substandard work, urging stakeholders to verify information with relevant authorities such as the Federal Ministry of Works or NNPC to avoid public misinformation.
The statement reads in full:
In the last couple of days, we have been in the Social Media over the Calabar-Itu Federal Highway.
Some stakeholders have raised eye-brows concerning the quality of jobs been 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 on the project’s execution, it also behooves on the citizens to carry out proper investigations on the state of the projects, who is doing what and how.
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| One of the Bridges under construction by SEMATECH in the Calabar-Itu Road |
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, has a rack 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.
We did 67Km from Iyamotong to Akpet 1 successfully. We are currently rehabilitating from Akpet 1 to Odupkani Junction. 25Km out 75Km has been completed. Paucity of funds from federal government is the cause of 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 it was mobilised.
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 works continually to ensure free flow of traffic.
We wish to point out that our project spans through 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 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 stabilize 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 purview, but rather a different company.
We also need to pint out that SERMATECH is not the only company involved in the project
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 other not to mislead the public.