Motorists, travellers stranded as trucks take over Oyo-Ogbomosho Road

Motorists and travellers along the Ogbomosho/Oyo expressway have expressed frustration as articulated vehicles including tankers, trailers and container trucks have taken over the highway, causing untold hardship to residents and motorists in the ancient community in Oyo State.

The Oyo-Ogbomosho highway has been under construction for over a decade with the deteriorating condition of the old road which has been made virtually unmotorable by articulated vehicles.

Daily Trust reports that the Oyo-Ogbomosho expressway which connects Ilorin-Ogbomosho expressway is about 65 kilometres and is the link between the North and the South. Most trucks originating from Lagos to the northern parts of Nigeria including Kwara, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Zamfara, Kebbi down to the north-eastern states pass through Oyo-Ogbomosho.

The completion of a part of the new expressway linking Ogbomosho-Ilorin provides a major relief for motorists travelling on the axis.

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But in recent times, articulated vehicles have taken over the new road and blocked the entire expressway, making it almost inaccessible to small vehicles.

One of our correspondents, who visited Ogbomosho over the weekend, observed a long stretch of gridlock caused by trucks. Almost the entire Ogbomosho town has been taken over by trucks and tankers making movement extremely difficult for residents.

From the Ilorin-Ogbomosho expressway linking the Ogbomosho old road, Daily Trust observed a heap of trucks and trailers which were stationary and took over the bridge linking the old road. Also, trucks have also taken over the Ogbomosho town down to the popular Taki roundabout which is a major transportation hub for travellers coming from Ilorin.

Commercial vehicles, buses and private cars were seen navigating the inner streets of Ogbomoso township to connect to the new road that is still under construction just to avoid the main road which has been taken over by trucks and trailers.

Residents of Ogbomosho also lamented the development, expressing fear over their safety and the peace of the community.

“For the past two weeks, Ogbomosho has been like this. You can see trailers in the whole of the town including tankers which is what is giving us serious concern. God forbid when a tanker explodes, where do we run to? We are living in fear and our political leaders are not here to save the situation,” said a resident of Ogbomosho, Mr Ladi Ajewolu who spoke with one of our correspondents.

Daily Trust also observed that most of the trucks have diverted to the new road under construction by removing the barricades erected by the contractor, RCC.

Some youths of Oyo also took advantage of the situation by collecting tolls from motorists before they could pass through the removed barricades.

Motorists lament gridlock

Commercial motorists plying Ilorin-Lagos; Ilorin-Ibadan; and those heading from the North to the South lamented the gridlock in Ogbomosho, blaming the development on the bad condition of the road.

Abu Fatimah, a driver along the route, said, “The worst part of the road is the Oyo-Ogbomoso axis, most especially the old road. With the situation of the weather, it is quite bad if a car gets faulty on the road or an accident happened, it would lead to a long traffic and at times we spend up to four hours in the gridlock and that is the worst part of travelling that road, especially at Odo Oba approaching Oyo.

“Some of us familiar with Ogbomosho interior use the town’s network of roads to bypass the traffic at times. The distance you ought to travel for 30 minutes can last more than two hours or more.

“Some of us do take the initiative to clear the road but we appeal to the Police/FRSC to help, there is little we as individuals can do about it.”

Another motorist lamented that armed robbery attacks have become the order of the day.

“Worst is that armed robbery has become an everyday occurrence along Ogbomoso- Ilorin expressway. It is worse along the Otte-Ilorin axis and night travel along that road has now become a death trap from my two experiences starting from 8pm till midnight.

“A colleague was killed before Sallah and on Monday, another one and a passenger were shot. The federal government should assist us on the situation because there are talks that police operatives and youths of the community including traditional are complicit,” he said.

Another driver who spoke with Daily Trust, Lanre Adebayo, also shared his travails plying the route.

He said: “Today makes it the third time I was almost robbed along Gambari to Ilorin. Yesterday, my tyre got destroyed while I was trying to escape from the robbers who were shooting at our buses. I fell into a ditch where my tyre and rim got destroyed. Despite the fact we were moving in a convoy of eight buses, only six of us escaped from them but the other two were not so lucky as the robbers got to them and offloaded everything they could lay their hands on in those two buses.

“The menace is prevalent from the boundary of Oyo State with Kwara State at Otte, worse from Galilee to Eiyenkorin. We want the government to come to our rescue because the menace is happening every day.”

Jide Babanla who said he has been plying Lagos-Ilorin for decades said, “The trailers are destroying the roads. We no longer have motorable roads to drive on due to the prevalence of the trailers and the abandonment of that road by the federal government is causing us huge problems, the trailers are either ramming into cars or falling down on the road which is causing difficulty for other road users. In the same vein, another driver who simply identified himself as Jelili lamented the harsh reality of the road.

“Once it is 8pm it is better and safer for a driver to stay at Ogbomosho for the night because a lot can happen between Ogbomosho to Eiyenkorin. In the night the robbers always block the road with stones and logs in order to stop travellers and rob them of their belongings.

“If you decide to follow the trailers with the hope of escaping the robbers, there are chances that while the trailer is trying to escape, it will block the rest of you leading to your capture by the robbers,” he said. Another driver, Hassan Abdulrahman, also echoed the same frustration on the menace of the armed robbers and menace of trucks on the road.

“Just two days ago, I came face to face with those robbers but luckily for me I was able to escape, I saw two of them standing at few metres away but they ran from the road due to the speed at which I was driving, I was even scared for the other driver behind me but luckily, he was able to escape too.

“The road is so bad and if one is not an expert driver, one might live to regret plying that road, especially the car drivers; they suffer the bad road the most,” he said.

The Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, Engr. Victor Ayeni said his unit had written to the headquarters of the ministry on the traffic situation in Ogbomoso.

He blamed the development on the stoppage of works by the contractor, saying the issue is being addressed by the government.

“The issue is because the contractor has not been working since the begining of this year.  The Federal Government is determined to address the issue with the contractor. The road has been in a bad shape also because of the heavy-duty trucks.”