By Sofiyullahi Lawal
Residents of Mararaba in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have lamented over the poor flow of traffic which has been prevalent in the area for years.
Speaking to Blueprint yesterday, a number of motorists who got stuck in the gridlock pleaded with the relevant authorities to tackle the issue as soon as possible.
Because of the gridlock, motorists spend about three hours in a car from Mararaba to Kugbo, and the journey shouldn’t take up to 30 minutes on a normal day.
It is widely believed that over seventy percent of the people working in the city centre live in Mararaba and Nyanya, but if you don’t reside in the axis you would not realize what they go through daily as they go and come back from work.
A resident who gave his name simply as Magaji suggested that the possible solutions to the problem should be expansion of the road, a standard traffic regulation and removal of some bus-stops along it.
Also speaking, a commuter, Ibrahim Badu, said one of the major causes of the gridlock was violation of traffic laws by motorists.
Ibrahim urged the government to take measures which will bring about free flow of traffic by making sure that hawkers no longer sell wares on the middle of the road.
“Government has to do something about it, government need to clear the shops and motor park beside the road or add another line,” he said.
Another commuter, Mr. Daniel Emanuel, stressed that he has been living in Mararaba for the past five years, and the traffic gridlock has been there since the first day he moved to the area.
According to him, expansion of the road and enforcement of traffic laws could resolve the problem.
For Miss Sulayman Aminat, in a bid to get to work early, she leaves her house by 4am or 5am daily just to beat the hold-up, but still gets caught up in it some days.
“Like today, you are expected to be at work as early as possible, but with the hold-up today, I don’t think by 9am people can get to work,” she lamented.
Aminat noted that the hold-up was never caused by the hawkers, as some people believe. She said government should urge military men at checkpoints not to cause traffic congestion, because it is dangerous.
“Government should help us and talk to the military men at the check points, at times they make the hold-up worse and they should just talk to them” she stressed.
To Alhaji Yusuf Abdullahi, the daily hold-up, happens due to high number of persons and vehicles from Keffi, Masaba, new Nyanya, Gbandara, Ado and Maraba passing through the road to their various places of work in the city centre.
He said: “The government knows the solution to the problem; they know what to do in order to stop the traffic that rocks here daily.”
To Mrs. Tunmise Ajani, buses and trailers which are usually parked on the sides of the road cause slow movement, which ends up in traffic gridlock. He pleaded with the government to order motorists to stop illegal parking.
