By Eseoghene Emuke
One person has been reportedly injured following the collapse of an over 30-year-old bridge in Uzere in the Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State on Monday.
It was gathered that the bridge caved in last night but was discovered on Monday morning by commuters plying the road to their destinations.
Residents in the area confirmed the incident to NIGER DELTA TODAY (NDT) Online.
The victim identified as Utuada Sunday was said to have ran into the collapsed bridge with his motorcycle and was rushed to hospital for treatement.
The collapsed bridge is of a federal road connecting riverine communities of the three council areas of Isoko South, Patani and Ndokwa East.
The road connecting the bridge was said to have been constructed by the Federal Government in 1990 and 1991 by Julius Berger.
While some residents claimed the bridge naturally collapsed, some of the blamed the collapse of the bridge on third party through the use of explosives.
The use of explosives to attack could not be independently confirmed by this medium at the time of filing this report.
“We have been hearing two different stories about the collapsed bridge. Some residents are claiming that the bridge was attacked with explosives by some unknown aggrieved youths. What we are hearing is that it’s the same people that attacked INEC office in Oleh that also attacked the bridge.
“But if you look at the manner the bridge collapsed, we are not sure if it was due to any attack. Majority of us in Uzere believed that the bridge section of the road collapsed due absence of maintenance on the part of the federal government”, a resident of Uzere confided on our correspondent on Monday night.
Other residents who spoke on the collapsed bridge lamented the development, saying that it was the only access road linking the riverine communities to the urban areas of Isoko.
They appealed to the Federal and Delta State Government to urgently fix the collapsed bridge to save farmers and other commuters of the suffering the situation will pose to locals in the area.
Efforts to speak with Isoko South council chairman, Mr. Victor Asasa, on the development proved abortive as repeated calls to his telephone ranged out.
