Ebonyi govt officials, youths attack FERMA director over alleged shoddy road project

Some Ebonyi State Government officials and youths, on Wednesday, allegedly attacked the state Director of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Mrs Eberechukwu Ogbuagu, over alleged shoddy road project being executed by the Agency.
The incident happened in Onicha Local Government Area.
But, Chairman of the council,
Mr Felix Igboke, while denying that Ogbuagu was physically assaulted, admitted that “some youths only attempted to snatch her handbag”.
Also, Mr Mark Onu, the Special Assistant (SA) to Governor Dave Umahi on Youth Mobilisation, alleged that the FERMA Director was rude to the government officials when she was approached for clarifications.
“I am the leader of youths in Ebonyi and if anybody should attack, I should give the order but I didn’t give such,” he said.
The state officials, including senior aides of the governor, joined the over 50 youths to protest FERMA’s work at the Okposi—Onicha section of the Okposi-Onicha-Isu-Nara federal highway.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions: “FERMA Execute Good Job in Our Area” and “Ebonyi has High Road Execution Standard”.
Chief Itapa Azuobu, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Project Monitoring (South Senatorial Zone), said that the project was not being executed with specifications.
“Drainages are not constructed in Ebonyi for instance with ‘BRC-Mesh’-rods as our standard here is that a road ‘shoulder’ should be with 1.5m–2m apart to get 10.3m at the end.
“The FERMA’s state director’s claim that she and her staff were manhandled was false as she could not have survived if such number of youths attacked her,” he said.
Igboke said that the indigenes “who ply the road complain of its substandard and the state and the government decided to intervene.
“The FERMA state director admitted that the specifications used for the project was her choice, not even FERMA’s standard as the road project being executed by the council is of higher quality.
“We have consulted and decided that the road project should be suspended until she meets with the Commissioner for Works, the SSA on Project Monitoring and other relevant officials,” he said.
Mrs Ogbuagu declared that the road had been neglected for long but was earmarked for maintenance in the agency’s 2017 capital project schedule.
“Two ‘box-culverts’ were awarded for construction—at kilometre ‘one plus 400’ and the other one at kilometre ‘eight plus 500’.
“For us to connect the culverts, I pushed for a road contract which was approved by the agency.
“There was provision for stone base of 160 cm asphalt of 40cm among others in the project’s specification as the standard for carriage-ways is 7.3m with a shoulder width of a 2.75m,” she said.
“During my discussion with the governor, I told him that it was impossible for FERMA as a maintenance outfit to work below standard having monitors from the zonal office and headquarters,” she said.
“My driver, other staff and I were seriously manhandled by the protesting youths. They even tried to snatch my bag. It is really humiliating. What exactly is our offence? Why the attack? What did we do?”