CHANNELS TV
Motorist plying the Makurdi-Enugu federal highway and traders in Eke and Ugbokolo communities have decried the poor condition of the road which armed robbers are taking advantage of to perpetrate evil.
Some of the motorists and traders, who have been robbed recently along Eke-Ugbokolo axis of the federal road connecting Northern and Southern Nigeria, shared their ordeal with Channels Television.
On a daily basis, heavy duty truck struggle on the Eke/Ugbokolo axis of the road that has been badly damaged by rain.
Smaller vehicles also struggle to go through the road, losing productive hours to many failed portions of the road.
Sometimes they are unlucky and end up trapped by armed robbers.
While Mr Henry Okoh expressed concerns over the increasing cases of robbery incidents, a truck driver, Shuaibu Ali, lamented the rate of accidents on the road with trucks falling off the cliff due to a large gully which has cut the road into two.
Local traders on the setbacks of the road along Ugbokolo said that besides the road aiding criminal activities, it also affects the free movement of their wares.
Erosion has also washed away half of the road by Odoba junction shortly before the Big Boys hill in Ogbadibu.
Utility pipes are now in plain sight, with wreckage of trucks in the steep after failed attempts to avoid the gully.
Members of the Union of Road Transport Workers are asking the Federal Government to fix the Apa/Guto-Oweto road, while state government officials appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to also fix the Makurdi-Gboko road.
The Makurdi-Enugu road provides a shorter route to the northern part of Nigeria from the south-east.
To address the challenge of access to road the Federal Road Maintenance Agency said it had done what was within its limits.
The police on their part have deployed patrol teams to the area to check the crime.
But commuters are requesting that more should be done to address the deplorable state of the road that had made it a place to rob.
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