On Wednesday, November 3, thousands of workers and other innocent Nigerians, going to their respective places of work and businesses in Abuja metropolis from Keffi, Maraba, Karu, Jikwoyi and Karshi axis were locked down for several hours by military operatives who blocked the road for security checks.
The same thing happened in the early part of the following day, Thursday, October 4.
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The soldiers mounted a checkpoint after the Karu bridge end and only allowed one vehicle to pass at a time, thus making the already chaotic traffic situation which has been a regular feature of that axis to assume an unprecedented and horrible dimension.
The resultant effect was that thousands of motorists and commuters were made to go through harrowing and unprecedented hardship in a chaotic gridlock for several hours.
Thousands of exhausted, frustrated and stranded commuters and citizens could be seen lining up helplessly at major bus stops along the road waiting endlessly for vehicles to board to no avail due to the gridlock.
Scores of workers could not make it to their places of work that day because of this inconsiderate action of men of the Nigerian Army.
Those who had to make it into town at all cost took the deadly risk of taking a ride on motorcycles from the Mararaba axis down to AYA before they could continue their journey to town. Haba! This is sad and unfortunate.
Innocent citizens were forced to spend between N700 to N1,000 on motorcycles for a journey that they would have ordinarily spent between N100 to N200, no thanks to men of the Nigerian Army.
Sadly enough, the military personnel who mounted the roadblock were in the real sense, not doing any serious checks but ended up subjecting ordinary Nigerians to undergo unnecessary pains and hardship.
It was learnt that the invasion of UniAbuja staff quarters by gunmen which led to the abductions of some lecturers could have warranted the return of roadblocks by the Army.
To me, this action of the soldiers is illogical. How does blocking road and forcing innocent commuters and motorists to go through a harrowing experience address the rising pace of kidnapping in the country? Why is it that each time there is a security breach within the Federal Capital City, the soldiers instantly lockdown the Abuja-Keffi road subjecting innocent commuters to unnecessary hardship in the name of carrying out a security check?
For goodness sake, the incident happened somewhere far away in Giri area of Gwagwalada along the Zuba-Kaduna Expressway. Why not block the Gwagwalad-Zuba-Kaduna Expressway? Why does the Abuja-Keffi Expressway keep being blocked each time there is a major or minor security breach in the FCT? I begin to imagine, what would the soldiers have done if the incident had happened somewhere around Nyanya, Karu or Keffi axis?
Where is the intelligence gathering aspect of our security architecture? All the Army does now is fire brigade and knee-jerk response to security issues.
This approach is counterproductive and cannot achieve any result. Is the Army telling us that the attackers of UniAbuja will now be driving majestically through the Keffi-Nyanya-Abuja road for them to arrest or what?
Soldiers should go to the forests where the bandits and kidnappers operate freely and stop disturbing us, innocent citizens going about our normal businesses. We are not criminals; we are hardworking Nigerian citizens going about our legitimate businesses and we should be allowed to do so without any form of harassment and intimidation.
I wish to call on the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to as a matter of urgency quickly call all his men subjecting innocent citizens to untold hardship along the Abuja-Keffi to order now. While we appreciate the sacrifice and efforts the soldiers are making to guarantee our safety, we would not hesitate to call them out when they subject us to unnecessary pains and hardship in the name of military checks. The Army High Command should kindly take urgent step to address the situation and call the soldiers to order. Thank you.
Daniel Onogwu writes from Ado, Karu LGA, Nasarawa State
