Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Travellers on the Benin-Sapele-Warri federal highway have continued to lament the loss of man hours caused by gridlock due to multiple failed portions of the road.

When Daily Sun visited one of the failed portions during an inspection tour by officials of Delta State, vehicles were stuck at various sections of Okuovo community in Okpe Local Government Area of the state.

Some locals however took advantage of the situation to make brisk business by extricating the stuck vehicles for travellers to continue the journey.

Regardless, a local transporter, Yusuf Muskiliu, told Daily Sun that it now take over three hours to drive from Warri to Sapele, a journey usually took less than 30 minutes when the road was in good shape.

Muskiliu appealed to government to come to the aid of commuters by fixing the failed portions of the road, alleging that hoodlums have also taken advantage of the deplorable spots to attack and dispossess motorists of their belongings at odd hours.

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“This is hectic and worrisome, we are suffering because of the bad road and we are begging, you people should tell government to help us,” he said.

On his part, Commissioner for Works, James Auguoye, in company with his Information counterpart, Charles Aniagwu, pleaded with the Federal Government to step up intervention efforts to ameliorate the suffering of commuters plying the road.

Augoye said the level of intervention on the Benin-Warri highway was beyond the capacity of the state government, pointing out what is needed on the road is complete reconstruction.

“Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has directed us to visit and assess the roads to see how the state government can intervene. The necessary documentations are been done in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works to commence with the intervention on Warri-Sapele road,” he said

On the Ughelli-Asaba dual carriageway, Augoye said the sector “A” is being executed by the state government at the contract sum of N19.1 billion.

Aniagwu said the state government is pained by what Nigerians are passing through on failed federal roads, noting that the development is affecting both the economy of the state and the nation.