Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Niger Delta Development Commission to rebuild the crumbling Warri–Sapele–Benin stretch of the East-West Road.
NDDC Managing Director Samuel Ogbuku announced the directive during a site inspection, according to a Guardian newspaper report cited by Premium Times.
Ogbuku said the order followed Works Minister David Umahi’s own inspection of the battered Benin–Agbor and Benin–Warri corridors nearby.
The commission has now received the project from the Works Ministry and stands ready to begin reconstruction, he said.
Two contractors are expected to handle the works, The Guardian reported, though no timeline was given.
Ogbuku apologized to residents and drivers who have long endured the road’s punishing, pothole-scarred surface.
Delta State’s NDDC board representative, Monday Igbuya, said Sapele had effectively been severed from Warri by the decay.
He urged the commission to also fix nearby Eku Road, calling it a daily hardship for residents and students.
The announcement comes days after Umahi gave a Chinese construction firm fourteen days to repair the separate Benin–Asaba highway.
That route had seen reported multi-day traffic jams, stranding drivers and passengers on the road for extended periods.