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By Correspondent in Abuja.
The grid luck that hit Abuja-Keffi highway on Wednesday and subjected thousands of commuters and other road users to serious untold harship showed sign of ease on Thursday with many drivers commuters expressing relief.
The Reporters’ Correspondent gathered that the blocking of the highway might not be unconnected with the alleged plan to attack Abuja, the nation capital.
At the beginning of the blockage, many commuters said they lost bmany man hours as they were unable to get to their destination, while many put pay the idea of going to Abuja and other places enroute the highway.
Our Correspondent who visited in the morning reports that vehicles were seen moving,though at slow pace, quite contrary to the first of problem,characterised by standstill, a developmnt that forced commuters to trek to their destination while some abandoned their journey.
For commercial motorcycle operators, the problem is regarded as a blessing in disguise as they cashed in to increase their more than 200 per cent per trip.
In another development commuters under the auspices of Road Users Development Network of Nigeria (RUDNON),an NGO, have threatened to stage a protest over neglect of dilapidated portions of the Abuja-Keffi expressway, which they described as one of the causes of daily gridlock on the highway.
The Caretaker Committee Chairman of RUDNON, Mr Chimezie Obi, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, called on contractors handling the ongoing construction on the highway to repair the potholes within two weeks.
Obi expressed concern the unnecessary slow pace of expansion work had impacted negatively on the lives and businesses of users of the road.
He said:”We observe that while the road expansion work is taking long to construct, the heavy vehicular movement and climate effects are also causing potholes on the portions of the road.
“Specifically, from Mogadishu Barracks down to the boundary of FCT and Nasarawa State, leading to slowdown of movement by vehicles, is causing long stretch of gridlock on the road.
“The need to draw the attention of the Federal Government,once again, to the plight of citizens plying the Abuja-Keffi road has once again become imperative and urgent.”
He noted that that on a daily basis, commuters along the road suffered untold hardship during the peak hours of the morning and the evening.
Obi advised the Federal Government,through the Federal Ministry of Works, to take the ongoing road expansion work seriously and be more decisive in the interest of citizens that had been subjected to untold hardship daily on that road.
‘We also call the Federal Ministry of Works to call the contractor to order, to sit up and immediately repair the bad portions of Abuja-Keffi road to ease the suffering of citizens living in that axis.
“May we not witness a day when citizens living in that axis will rise up,collectively, to protest their untold hardship of living and plying in that road,as if they are second class citizens,”he added.
