Heavy Gridlocks Seize Benin-Auchi-Okene Highway

The Ekpoma section of the Benin-Auchi-Okene Highway is once again congested.

The bottleneck is caused by a one-kilometer-long section of the highway that has crumbled.

Long lines of cars, especially articulated vehicles, were spotted on the stretch of the failing segment on Sunday, according to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN).

Long lines could be seen stretching from Opoji Junction to the Ambrose Alli University entrance in Ekpoma, a common sight when the rains came.

Motorists, particularly those driving articulated vehicles, spend days on the failed section of the highway, according to NAN.

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Motorists who spoke with NAN stated that rather than the yearly palliative remedy of filling sections with rubble, a permanent fix of the road was needed to put a stop to their agony.

“You can see the long queue here. I have been here since yesterday and no movement for articulated vehicles.

“Cars easily manoeuvre their way through Ekpoma town,’’ Musa Bawa, an articulated vehicle driver who was in the gridlock overnight, told NAN.

“This was our experience last year and we have started again even before heavy rains come,’’ he said.

Another motorist, Musa Abdulahi, said government needed to question contractors who execute palliative repairs on that portion of the highway as jobs delivered never last beyond a rainy season.

“In the alternative, a total reconstruction of the highway should be effected to avoid the perennial gridlocks,’’ he said.

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