RCC staff’s abduction stalls work on Lagos-Benin highway
By Simon Ebegbulem
THE House of Representatives, weekend, lamented that the recent abduction of two Lebanese staff of the Reynolds Construction Company, RCC, has stalled on-going construction work at the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Works, Mr Patty Etete-Ineme, who led other members of the committee on an on the spot inspection of some Federal Government roads in Edo State, appealed to Governor Adams Oshiomhole to sort out the rift, which led to the withdrawal of soldiers from the state Joint Security Task Force, in order to bring them back to Benin City with a view to checking the excesses of kidnappers.
He also, appealed to the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, to provide security for contractors handling Federal Government projects, particularly those handling the Benin-Lagos road, so that workers of the RCC would return to site.
Ineme, who disclosed that they had inspected the Uforu-Uzebba Express road and the Abuja-Auchi Road, regretted that they could not inspect the Benin-Lagos Road due to the abduction of Shayke Heebe and Ilan Diganker, two Lebanese staff of RCC, on October 10 and 19, 2010 respectively, while they were working on site.
According to him, “we have inspected other roads but it is sad that we could not inspect the Benin-Lagos Road due to the abduction of the workers of RCC. I wonder why people should be kidnapping men, who are working for the good of the country. If you kidnap workers who are coming to bring succour to this region, then we are punishing ourselves. Let us encourage the contractors to give us a speedy delivery of job completion to reduce the suffering and yearnings of Nigeria.
“We like to use this opportunity to appeal to these undesirable elements to consider the plights of road users and commuters on the road. This is yuletide period and we know how busy that road could be in a time like this. If not for this incident, with the speedy manner in which the contractor was working, we would have gone far now,” he added.
