The preparations for the visit of President Olusegun Obasanjo to Rivers State and the screening of Peoples Democratic Party governorship aspirants paralysed Port Harcourt for more than 10 hours on Monday.
Preparations for Obasanjo, who is visiting the state on a one-day working tour on Tuesday (today), started on Sunday morning with the demolition of illegal structures on major routes to be used by the President and his entourage.
Although the traffic situation was not alarming on Sunday, the closure of some parts of the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway on Monday for hours for emergency repairs and paintings of kerbs and sidewalks posed a serious setback to commuters and motorists.
The demolition squads enlarged its operations with the pulling down of houses and shanties near the Port Harcourt Motor Park and the PDP secretariat in the state.
As the demolition was going on, some of the aggrieved owners wept while others attempted to stop the bulldozers but were prevented by policemen.
The traffic situation worsened near the Zonal Headquarters of the PDP for the South-South opposite the corporate headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission along Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.
Traffic was brought to a standstill with the blockade of one of the four lanes that connects the PDP zonal office with police trucks, apparently to ward off intruders and ensure security around the premises.
The cordoning of the area, created a column of vehicles that stretched from Garrison Junction to the Presidential Hotel Junction, a distance of about three kilometres.
Although the screening of the gubernatorial aspirants was yet to begin as at 3pm, a team of regular policemen and bomb disposal experts had taken over the secretariat and barricaded the routes leading to it.
A bomb disposal vehicle was also deployed in the frontage of the one-storey building adorned with PDP colours.
Some of the aspirants who had arrived for their screening were seen around the premises as the officials were still being expected as at 3pm, when our correspondent visited.
Some aspirants from Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom states were seen moving towards the venue of the screening but none was willing to talk to the press