Communities in Bida/Gbako/Katcha Federal Constituency of Niger State have cried out that their lives are being exposed to danger by trucks plying the Bida-Minna road, and urged the federal government to bar such articulated vehicles from the road.
Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Stakeholders of Bida/Gbako/Katcha Federal Constituency, Yahaya Mustapha, who spoke for the communities further called on the government to, within five days, close the road to save lives.
He said the constant flow of heavy trucks on the road has led to total dilapidation of the road and reduced it to a deadly route for the teeming masses in the affected communities and other Nigerians plying the road.
He said, “The deplorable condition of Bida- Minna road has been one of the greatest nightmares to the people and government of Niger State. The road witnesses, on a daily basis, a regular huge volume of vehicular traffic especially articulated ones that ply it as a shortcut between many states in the northern and southern parts of the country.
“When the state government took the decision to close the road against articulated vehicles, it was a big sigh of relief for our people. To us, the government of Niger State took the bull by the horn in her bid to ensure uninterrupted rehabilitation of the road.
“While the decision of the Niger State government to close the road to heavy-duty vehicles was acknowledged and greatly applauded, we are dismayed and disappointed with the pressure mounted by the federal authorities to reopen the road to this category of vehicles.
“It is also expected that the federal authorities will hasten work on the Lambata-Lapai-Bida road.
