Thousands of Nigerians returning from the Christmas and New Year holidays are currently stranded along the Lokoja-Okene-Obajana axis due to bad roads.
The bad portion at the Obajana junction in Kogi State has not gotten the attention of the government and Nigerians are made to suffer the negligence.
A reporter visited the road on Sunday with traffic stretching over five kilometres.
To compound the situation, some trailer drivers mounted roadblocks in protest, preventing small vehicles from using the road shoulder.
While speaking with our reporter, some said they have been on the road since Saturday.
Speaking to one of the passengers, Ahmed Oladimeji, a student of Federal University, Lokoja, who is travelling from Lagos to resume school on Monday, said he has been at the same spot for over four hours without any hope of leaving the bush.
“At this point, I am scared of sleeping here, no one knows what will happen after dark. Why is it difficult for the government to fix this portion? That Obajana junction has been bad for years now, what is Fashola doing? What is FERMA doing? This is bad.”
One other commuter, who spoke with this reporter, questioned the claims by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola on works done on major roads.
“This is not just a road, it is a major road connecting South-South and Southwest to the North. With all the borrowing by the current government, they cannot fix or rehabilitate this road. It is shameful. Later, Fashola will come on TV and brag about fixing 6,000km of roads.”
At one point, security agents fired bullets in the air to prevent motorists. As at 4:30 pm, the gridlock appears not to be ending anytime soon.
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