Warri — TRAVELLERS from eastern part of the country, Benin and other parts of the South-South zone to the South-West, were stranded for several hours, Wednesday afternoon, on the Lagos-Benin road following a traffic jam caused by some vehicles that broke down at a notorious bad spots in Ore.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, says the commission decided to intervene in the Ore-Benin section of the Lagos-Ore-Benin road, last month, because it got to an appalling stage where people started abandoning vehicles on the bad road.

The NDDC boss who spoke to Vanguard in Port Harcourt said at sometimes, more than 200 vehicles could be stuck in one place on the road.

Wednesday, a lot of vehicles were trapped on the road, forcing a lot of people to either sleep in Ore or abandon their journey.

Mr. Aguariavwodo, however, told Vanguard that the commission wrote to President Olusegun Obasanjo when it saw the deplorable state of the road and obtained permission to begin remedial work to give the Ministry of Works time to do a more permanent job on the road.

Investigations by Vanguard, however, showed that what the Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), which the NDDC contracted to do the remedial job has done so far was to fill one of the very bad portions between Okada and Ugbogui with granites but there was no sign of work on the road.

According to Aguariavwodo, "we are already repairing the Ore to Benin section of it. We wrote a letter to the President when we saw the deplorable state of the road that we should do some remedial work and the President approved. Work has started. The Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) is doing the work so that the Ministry of Works can go back and do more permanent thing in the future.

"But it was so bad that we had to do something and I can assure that from Warri to Port Harcourt, if not the NDCC, which has been managing and repairing the road, it would have been impassable by now. We are doing it because we believe that this is the most important road in the country, where all the heavy-duty vehicles that carry all kinds of equipment and materials for the oil industry use. We feel that it is our responsibility to do and we are doing it. We started the remedial work on the Ore-Benin axis of the road about a month ago," he said.

Reminded that the road was still in a very bad state, he said: "If you saw the state of the road when we decided to do something, you will be shocked. More than 200 vehicles were stuck. They could't move. The people abandoned their vehicles and just left. It was that bad. So, we are doing something now. I believe that very shortly, it will become passable. At least one section of it will be opened for use."