By Correspondent in Abuja
Motorists, commuters and other road users on Saturday, chewed more than they could swallow; wasting about 10 hours in the heat of the increased gridlock that hit Maraba/Nyanya in the FCT and part of Nasarawa state on Saturday.
Our Correspondent in Abuja reports that the traffic jam was a vivid reminder of a development in which the road and intersecting streets were completely congested, making vehicular movement virtually possible.
Commuters who spoke with our Correspondent traced the major cause of the problem to drivers taking one way from Ado to Maraba junction.
As a result of the problem,which persisted as at the time of this report, human factors such as wrong driving,one lane, pick-pocketing by miscreants,break down of vehicles, coupled with heavy rain, compounded the plight of commuters.
The Correspondent of The Reporters recalls that Maraba/ Nyanya is noted for a unique gridlock as a result of heavy vehicular movement on the road to other of the states of the federation, particularly the northern part of the country.
Commercial motorcycle operators on the road cashed in on the situation to charge exorbitant fare as much as N500 per trip, depending on the distance.
Some of the drivers and commuters, who spoke with our Correspondent called on the Federal government to do the needful to ease difficult cin thousands of commutters experience plying the road, by expanding it to accommodate more lanes.
Mr Nathaniel Ajayi, Salami Abdullahi and Miss Aminat Salawu and other commutters who spoke to our Correspondent in separate telephone interview, said they were stuck in the gridlock as from 10 a.m, on their way to Lafia in Nasarawa state and were only able to get out of it 7 30 p.m.
“Plying Maraba/Nyanya is such a nightmare, a development I will not wish my even smallest enemy. It is hightime government did the needful on time before the situation is completely out of control,”she said.
According to Ajayi, “the number of man hour the nation is losing any time commutters ply this road is unquantifiable. This is in addition to the health and psychological challenges this gridlock poses to thousands of commutters and other road users.”
Sources from the area, however,told the online publication that the gridlock has eased on Sunday but “yet uhuru”.
