Motorists, commuters groan over deplorable Ibadan-Abeokuta road

…Contract has been awarded —FG

IBADAN —  MOTORISTS and commuters plying Ibadan-Abeokuta road through Bakatari, Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, have urged the Federal as well as Ogun and Oyo state governments to fix the deplorable state of the road.

Motorists and commuters, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Ibadan, decried the situation of the road, describing driving on it as harrowing and a death trap.

Respondents blamed the long-standing abandonment of the road by the federal and the two concerned state governments and their agencies as the reason for the total collapse of the road connecting Oyo and Ogun states.

Motorists, however, blamed the neglect of the road by the government for its present sorry state, urging the federal and state governments to save the lives of commuters who daily ply the Ibadan-Abeokuta road corridor.

Also, some residents of Omi-Adio, Aba-Nla, Lade, and Bako, which are some of the towns along the Ibadan-Abeokuta axis, recounted the daily hardship experienced on the road.

An inter-state commercial driver, Isiaka Adigun, decried the situation of the road, saying that the portion of the road at Lade had become so bad that motorists experience hardship plying it.

Adigun said: “Though it’s an old road built in 1978 by the former Olusegun Obasanjo regime, but currently fast becoming a death trap to motorists.”

Another respondent, a commercial motorcyclist, Mr Godfrey Sunday, said the gridlock being experienced is gradually becoming unbearable for passersby and motorists.

He said that the gridlock also affects motorcycles, as their passengers have to disembark to enable people assist them in carrying their motorcycles across the bad portion to the other side before continuing on their journey.

Also, Mr Kayode Adesokan, a civil servant, lamented the time wasted on the road because of its deplorable state.

He said that the situation adversely affects workers, traders, and business owners on the route, with manpower wasted on gridlock, no matter how early one goes out.

Another respondent, Mr Ganiyu Alarape, a resident of Omi-Adio, said the road was so bad that even commercial motorcyclists have increased their fare.

On his part, the Baale of Bako town, Chief Abdulfatai Musbaudeen, said that aside from the bad road, commuters also worry whenever there is an overflow of the Jamoje Rivers anytime it rains.

The community leader said: “The Jamoje River is another major problem whenever it overflows across the Ibadan-Abeokuta road; it prevents commuters and motorists from passing.”

Contract has been awarded —FG

When contacted, the Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, Mr Victor Aina, said that the Federal Government has awarded the rehabilitation of the road to KOPEK Construction Company a few years ago.

Aina said that efforts were ongoing to ensure that the contractor mobilises to site, assuring motorists plying the road that work would soon commence  on the bad sections of the road.

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