…Plan Protest
Commuters, led by the Road Users Development Network of Nigeria (RUDNN), have threatened to stage a protest over the neglect of the dilapidated portions of the Abuja-Keffi expressway, which result in daily nightmares for residents.
The group demanded that the contractor in charge of the ongoing Abuja-Keffi road expansion step up and maintain the existing carriageway within the next 14 days, or else they will be forced to mobilize other road users to protest their hardship to Mr. President.
RUDNN, in a statement signed by its Caretaker Committee Chairman, Chimezie Obi, and made available to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, also decried the excessively slow pace of expansion work, which has had a negative impact on the lives and businesses of users of the road, which is one of the busiest in Nigeria due to its proximity to the Federal Capital Territory.
RUDNN, on the other hand, observed that, while the road expansion work is taking forever to complete, heavy vehicular traffic and climate effects are causing potholes on portions of the road, particularly from Abacha Barracks to the FCT-Nasarawa State border, slowing vehicle movement and causing long stretches of gridlock.
The statement read in bits: “The need to draw the attention of the Federal Government once again on the plight of citizens plying the Abuja-Keffi Road have once again become imperative and urgent.
“On a daily basis, commuters along this road suffer untold hardship during the peak hours of the morning and the evening simply because the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works have failed to take that road expansion work seriously. Nigerians will like to know whether the duration of the expansion work is forever.
“Otherwise, the Ministry that awarded that contract should sit up and take decisive actions for the interest of citizens subjected to untold hardship daily on that road.
The statement continued :”RUDNN hereby call on the contractor to immediately rise up and maintain the existing carriage way in the
Abuja-Keffi Road within the next 14-days, otherwise, we may be left with no option than to call on users of that road to protest their hardship to Mr. President.
‘We also call the Federal Ministry of Works to call the contractor to order to sit up and immediately repair the bad portions of Abuja-keffi Road to ease the sufferings of Citizens living in that axis.
“May we not witness a day when Citizens living in that axis will rise up collectively to protest their untold hardship of living and plying in that road axis, as if they are second class citizens”.
