By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Anambra State Government has refuted the story making the round online that the refurbished Ochanja road commissioned barely one week ago by Governor Chukwuma Soludo was on Monday washed away by rainfall.

Recall that a video of the affected road started trending on social media on Monday night after a heavy downpour in the state

But a statement by the Press Secretary to the Governor, Christian Aburime, described the online video as a misinformation.

He said that the online video which was recycled by mainstream media depicting a washed-out portion of the road, accompanied by false claims that the road was poorly constructed and commissioned weeks ago by Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is categorically false claims.

The statement read, "Following heavy rainfall on Monday 25, March 2024, which caused uprooted trees, downed electrical poles, and damage to public infrastructure across the state, a section of the Ochanja-Iweka Road, currently under construction, was also impacted.

"Contrary to the misrepresentations of the viral video and accompanying insinuations, the washed-out area of the road is less than one foot of recently asphalted pavement. Besides, the Road remains an active construction site, with work ongoing even during the heavy downpour yesterday.

"The brief vulnerability of the newly paved section is attributed to insufficient curing time before the heavy rain due to the construction schedule. Also, a silted drainage system caused the accumulation of water that affected the small, unfinished section while the road’s solid stone base, throughout its entire length, remains completely intact.

"Thus the trending video deliberately includes misleading footage of a different, already existing road that is not under construction.

"The Ochanja-Iweka Road project is neither finished nor commissioned by Governor Soludo. He has only commissioned the Port Harcourt Road and Niger Street Road in Onitsha South LGA, both of which are demonstrably well-built and functional.

He called on the public to disregard the misinformation campaign accompanying the misleading video, saying that it is a blatant attempt to distort reality and spread fake news.

Aburime added: "Governor Soludo is firmly committed to delivering high-quality road infrastructure that will stand the test of time."

Meanwhile, residents of Onitsha have also dismissed as false and unfounded, the allegation of the road collapse.

Condemning the false alarm, residents of the area as well as the Commissioner for Works, Engr Ifeanyi Okeoma, contended that the video was an affront to throw spanners into the good works of the state government.

While stating that nothing of the sort ever happened, he added: "Everyone of us is here on this road and you can see that nothing happened at all. We actually saw the video last night and first thing this morning, we came here to find out that nothing like that happened as you can see for yourself’

“The contractor worked on Sunday and closed for the day and he stopped at a small potion that is about one foot and there was a heavy downpour and the base was blocked and that point is about one foot that got washed off.

“As you can see that we are all standing on the stone base material that was primed so we are shocked at that mischievous video sponsored by the opposition to throw spanners into the good works of the state government and as you can see work is in progress.”

On his part, the Manager of construction company handling the road project, Zodic Construction Company, Mr Mark Chu, said: “We only have about one foot left of the entire More-Upper Iweka Road Project Ochanja and we are still working and we have continued from where we stopped.

“We want to reiterate that our company is providing Anambra state good quality and durable road infrastructure and we cannot be distracted by mischief makers and the public should disregard those false stories.”

He further revealed that the Ochanja road project is currently having a water fountain at the round about which used to be a mountain of refuse dump before the contract was awarded to them.

The Manager noted that apart from the water fountain, the road will have street lights with wide water drainage system which empties at a larger canal in order to protect the road and the market from flooding and also protecting traders' goods.

He urged the traders and residents in the area not to block the drains with wast adding that provisions are being made for the dumping of waste which would be cleared as quickly as possible.

Chairman, caretaker, Fegge Landlords Association, Mr Okwudili Obinwanne, described the viral video as capital lie adding that they are residents of the area and witnessed the heavy downpour yesterday, insisting that nothing happened.

He said: "We find it difficult to believe that someone in his right frame of mind would go to the extent of blackmailing the governor with such falsehood.

"You the journalists are here to see for yourself and make on the spot investigation into what happened and from what you have seen so far you can attest that this is the hand work of mischief makers and we the residents of this area wish to warn that we will not tolerate such misinformation of the general public by renegades.”

The More-Upper Iweka Road Project is 2.3km in length and so far, according to the contractor, up to 1. 7 km of the project has been done.

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