But for the alarm raised by shop owners close to the Akiama Bridge, a young woman with her baby alongside the commercial motorcycle rider, popularly known as Okada, carrying her would have become casualties of a collapsed bridge at Akiama Community.
The road named after Akiama Community, which is the homestead of the Allaputa Chieftaincy House of Bonny Kingdom is in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, links Oguede, Ogugumanga (Coconut Estate) and Abalamabie Communities.
An eyewitness, Opeyemi Okundiaghe said the bridge collapsed about 12noon during the heavy downpour of Tuesday, August 22, 2023, effectively cutting off commuters utilizing the road from Akiama and Oguede Communities.
Also disconnected are the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base, Bonny Vocational Centre, St. Charles Hospital, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, and Ibani-Se Hall, among others.
Narrating what she saw to Kristina Reports, Okundiaghe said she alongside other shop owners and residents of the area sensed the vibrations on the bridge early morning on their way to their shops and alerted others to stay away from the bridge.
“When I was coming to the shop this morning, around to seven, it was raining heavily; and passing on top of the bridge, if you march it, it’s like floater, as if there was nothing underneath it. There was someone in front of me, and I asked him are you not observing the way this thing is?”
“It was like all the sand underneath have washed away. And I said ‘I just pray this bridge will not collapse’; that was my statement this morning when I passed. I came and I opened my shop.”
The rain kept falling and at about after eleven to twelve, I saw a girl and an Hausa man, they were observing the place; the flood was coming this side and there was no way for the grass that the current was pulling to pass. They were thinking of how to remove the grasses so that water can pass. They just left the place, they have not even gone far, they were standing here when the bridge just collapsed.”
She stated that it was imperative for the relevant authorities quickly reconstruct the bridge and also provide a good drainage system to avoid a recurrence of the incident, warning that should the rains fall again the buildings adjoining the bridge would start collapsing as well.
In an interview with Kristina Reports, another shop owner, Harmony Okereke said she was called from home to come evacuate her shop as the building was falling apart due to its foundation which was close to the canal bounding the bridge caving in.
“I was at home when I got a call that my shop was collapsing, I had to run down here very, very fast, I even fell on the way. Then some people tried to stop me from getting in and they were like it’s dangerous; but I rushed in and brought out most of my stuffs. Some people helped me bring out my things most of my things have been scattered.”
She called on the relevant authorities to consider paying compensation to business owners whose shops were affected by the collapse of the bridge.
“I heard a bike man was carrying a passenger here before the bridge collapsed. They said the passenger was carrying a baby, a female. It was not this bad by then but it had already cracked. It just kept going and going and getting bigger and deeper.”
“I don’t know if it’s possible, if there is any sort of compensation because this is really heartbreaking; I am traumatized. This is really awful. The houses as well because if you check well so much is going down and if something is not done it will get worse. What if it happened at night and then people were asleep?”
Also speaking, the Director of Publicity of Allaputa Chieftaincy House Youths, Miracle Allaputa said there were no casualties recorded in the bridge collapse, disclosing that debris including grasses that blocked the free flow of water under the bridge contributed to the collapse.
“I wasn’t present when the bridge collapsed; I was at home when I saw a video on our youth platform that the bridge has collapsed, that was around 1.35pm. and then I quickly rushed down only for me to see that the bridge had already collapsed and water was overflowing and we were so surprised.
“Although we had already envisaged that something like this would happen due to the heavy duty vehicles that are passing on top of the bridge. Moreover, there have been some debris and grasses that have overgrown and they were not able to pass under the bridge. I think that stopped water from passing under the bridge and did not allow the water to have an easy flow.”
“There was no casualty, even the woman who was passing on bike, I think when that particular incident happened the force wasn’t that much. There was no injury sustained but there would have been a serious injury if the rain was still falling.”
He pointed out that the road was critical to both security and emergency services as the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base and the St. Charles Hospital were located along the road, noting that in the event of emergency, there would be the challenge of mobility.
“As we know, this is the road that leads to the naval base which is one of the top security units of Bonny, and as such if there is any security challenge now, this is one of the easiest access to any route in Bonny.”
“So, I think this calls for a serious investigation and proper reconstruction of the road because if any emergency happens to occur within the Bonny axis, before the naval vehicle will start running through the Coconut Estate axis, a whole lot must have gone wrong.”
“Imagine if there is any incident happening inside the community, it will be quite difficult for the police to intervene. Before they would turn round to follow that Coconut Estate axis, that route, it will be quite difficult. Maybe criminals must have escaped.”
“So, I want to plead with the government, the local government to please see how far they can facilitate the reconstruction of this Akiama Navy Base road because this is very important as far as security is concerned.”
On her part, a staff of one of the commercial banks in Bonny, Ruth Jumbo told Kristina Reports that she was scared when she heard of the collapse of the bridge for fear of anyone being hurt, informing that this was about the third time the bridge had collapsed, calling for a more thorough reconstruction work to avert any further incident there.
“I was scared I thought someone got hurt, because this is not the first time this road has been damaged. The first thing I thought of was if someone was present when it happened, but we thank God there was no injury.”
“They (government) just have to act fast because this is one a major road in Bonny Island, from here you go to the Navy office and the Navy office is very important. Imagine there is a crisis, imagine there is crime happening, they can’t zoom off from here. They will have to go to Coconut Estate or Magistrate Court and turn and before they get to the scene, it’s already over.”
“If this road is perfectly ok then I think they will get to the crime scene immediately. I will suggest they should not just do the road to fulfill all righteousness. They should make it firm, they should put iron. I believe this Julius Berger are prefect, they are ok. They will do it very well.”
In his remarks to Kristina Reports, Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bonny Branch, Prophet Atemie Allaputa advised the government and other relevant stakeholders to come to the aid of the Akiama people and fix the bridge.
He stressed that the reconstruction of the bridge should be awarded to a reputable company that understands the topography of the area, emphasising that the collapsed bridge lacked the required support structures to carry the weight of vehicles commuting on it, insisting that this should be factored into the reconstruction process.
“We understand that the structure or the engineering aspect of the bridge was not properly done because we are supposed to have at the centre of this place a pillar that will go down seven or nine feet inside the ground to hold the basis.”
“So, it’s just like they poured the concrete on the surface without something holding it but if there is pillar at the ground, I think let’s say six pillars, it will inter-fit within each other. Then there will be iron reinforcing the strongest to hold any capacity or any load or vehicle passing on it.
“The source of this water coming this way is coming all the way from the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas and it has full force and this is the only canal that is transmitting the water outside to the ocean. So, more attention must be paid to this place to enable all water to be channeled without damage.”
“If you look at this building behind or by the side of the places, it’s collapsing; if rain falls today or tomorrow, all these buildings will go. So, when government attention or company attention or community attention is called upon, they will design it in a way that it will link drainage that will be coming from different places.
“My advice is that they should give it to those who have the technical knowhow, who can also have a good drawing of this place. It should be Julius Berger not any other minor company. Yes, Julius Berger will go a long way because they have the technical knowhow, they have the civil construction understanding about roads, civil construction and everything, they have it.
The Bonny Local Government Council was yet to make a statement on the development as at the time of this report with residents of the area saying that the Chairman of the LGA, Dame Anengi Claude-Wilcox needs to come and see the state of things and quickly facilitate an intervention.
Concerned stakeholders are of the opinion that with this development, it was time for Rivers State Governor, Siminialayi Fubara to make good his campaign promise of constructing Bonny LGA’s internal roads, they predicate this position on the reality that Bonny Local Government may not be capable of funding the reconstruction project.
They cite the amount of funds available to the local government and applicable procurement laws, noting that these may hamper adequate funding of the project if a proper structural and sustainable job is to be done.
Others are of the opinion that the Bonny LGA Chairman, Dame Anengi Claude-Wilcox should quickly approach the State Governor to seek his intervention to fix the road given its critical and strategic place in the traffic profile of the island.
They point out that in the case of an emergency, whether security, medical or otherwise, an ordinarily five minutes’ drive to the St. Charles Hospital and Nigerian Navy FOB may now take over 30 minutes to make a detour via either the Coconut Estate Road or Polytechnic Road out to the Abalamabie Road and back to the other end of Akiama Road.
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