By Sunday Ajayi.
It was a horrible experience at the Kabba junction axis of Okene – Lokoja highway where the deplorable state of the road has left hundreds of commuters plying that routes stranded for several hours.
The gridlock on the road which started more than two weeks ago has made many travelers to spent more days on the road as the heavy duty trucks could not navigate the way smaller vehicle maneuver due to the bad portion at the Kabba junction axis of the road.
Many of them who spoke to this reporter used the opportunity to call on the Federal Government to mandate FERMA, which is the agency that is saddle with the responsibility of maintaining the road, to stand up to its primary assignment of making the road motorable.
A commuter, Mr Salami Idowu, who was travelling all the way from Lagos south west Nigeria, called on the appropriate authority at both the state and national to intervene in reducing the suffering of the masses by repairing the bad portion that caused the gridlock for more than two weeks now.
He called on Governor Yahaya Bello to help the commuters to fix the bad portion since the said road is in Kogi State, stressing that it is his responsibility to look after the welfare of his people by fixing the road for the benefit of the people of Kogi State and the passersby.
“Can you imagine, a country that have leadership is allowing its citizens to suffer unduly by deliberately neglecting the only all important road that connected the country from the southern parts to the north.’’
He said government should be alive to its responsibility by fixing the road without further delay as the hours wasted in the gridlock is an economy lost to not only those that were affected but the entire country as many perishable goods that got delayed in the holdup could not get to their destination before it spoiled.
