Over the years, from the Upper Iweka section to the School of Metallurgical areas, particularly the Amanator sections of the expressway, have been plagued with heavy potholes which swallow up vehicles and cause dangers to motorists.
On top of the gridlock that the road now suffers as a result of its bad state, the men of the Nigerian Navy always mount roadblocks on both lanes at Enamel Junction.
The roadblock mounted by the security operatives later resulted in heavy gridlock along both lanes of the highway as motorists spent hours trying to navigate the route.
Our correspondent who visited the location on Saturday gathered from commuters and motorists that the security operations always mount the roadblock from 6 pm daily and collect N200 from tricycle operators plying the area in the name of enforcing a curfew imposed on tricycle operators by the state government since 2022.
Some of the stranded commuters lamented as they remained in one spot in the gridlock for several hours.
A stranded commuter who identified himself as Silas Madu said, “We are suffering a lot on this road as a result of its terrible condition which has been abandoned. And on top of this, the navy people are worsening our condition with the roadblock they mounted which they are using to extort commercial vehicles.
“We are not against checkpoint, it is part of security, but what we are against is the extortion they are using it to carry out. That is why we are appealing to the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to lift the curfew imposed on commercial vehicle operators since 2022 so that the security operatives will not have any reason to extort money on the road.”
Besides, the downpour did not help matters for road users as it was accompanied by floods, thereby causing refuse dumps evacuated from various gutters to litter the road.
The refuse dumps evacuated from various gutters littered the road and were also hampering the smooth flow of both vehicular and non-vehicular movements as people struggled to pass through.
Another road user, who gave her name as Njideka Ogana said, “This Onitsha-Owerri Road is a critical road for us in the South-East and it has been left abandoned, thereby making us go through agony.
“It has become almost unmotorable; motorists are no longer safe and we are begging both the Federal Government and the Anambra State Government to come to our rescue. They should pity us; the suffering is just too much.”
Another road user, Kevin Okeke said, “We are suffering so much on this road. Onitsha has big buildings here and there, but no road. This is not good for a commercial city.
“Despite all these, we also suffer from extortion at military checkpoints. Look at the way they have blocked more than half of the road in the name of a police checkpoint and are using it to extort us.”
When contacted on the activities of the security operatives, the state police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, frowned on the situation and urged members of the public to come up with evidence to enable the police to investigate the situation.
“It is wrong and it is not part of our mode of operation to extort motorists in any guise. However, I urge members of the public to come up with evidence to enable us to carry out our investigation,” Ikenga added.
