Residents lament deplorable state of Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin Road

• Seek govt intervention as trucks besiege communities 

These are not the best of times for commuters plying the Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road as they spend several hours in transit as a result of the deplorable state of the road.

In some cases, kidnappers capitalise on the poor state of the road to abduct travellers, who either pay ransoms to regain their freedom or get killed.

The Guardian gathered that the recent siege on the road by heavy trucks has worsened the abandoned Aiyetoro-Gbedde-Egbe section of the Kabba-Ilorin road.

Lamenting the poor state of the road, a resident, identified simply as Mahmoud, called on the government for urgent repairs.

He said the 231km ‘Trunk A’ road was approved and awarded for reconstruction in 2014 and 2016, but was abandoned after the flag-off exercise, except the 17km that was constructed from Kabba to Aiyetoro Gbede in Ijumu Local Council.

He said: “After some time, the condition of the road deteriorated. The matter is worse because vehicles, especially trailers, petrol and gas tankers, and other heavy trucks plying the collapsed Kabba-Ekiti road, from the northern parts of the country, have now found a detour in the Kabba-Egbe road.

“No fewer than 500 trailers ply the road on a daily basis, thereby rendering the road impassable. It has also degraded the environment and caused tension to residents of Yagba communities along that road.”

Another resident, Monday Ojo, said the collapse of the road has rendered the people, mostly farmers, who dwell along the road, poorer, as travellers who normally buy farm produce displayed by the roadside are no longer doing so.

“A journey of 231 kilometres from Ilorin to Kabba, and 315 kilometres from Ilorin to Lokoja, which used to take between three hours and four hours, when the road was still motorable now takes about two days,” he lamented.

Meanwhile Governor Yahaya Bello has been urged to look beyond the federal government, and ease the sufferings of the road users and residents of the area.

This call was made by a lawyer, Chief (Barr) Isiolu Chijioke on Monday, when the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo paid a consultation visit to business mogul and opinion leader in the state, Chief Jide Omokore in his residence in Isanlu, Yagba East Local Council.

Chief Chijioke who spoke on behalf of “Friends of Jide Omokore”, pleaded with the state government to ensure that the section of the road, notably from Aiyetoro-Gbedde to Egbe received immediate attention as that section has become an eyesore and impassable.

He urged the state government to come to the aid of the suffering motorists, travellers and business owners by way of palliative intervention.

According to him, the state need not to wait for the federal government to ease the sufferings of road users in that area, who are mostly Kogi indigenes and bearing the brunt of the sufferings brought by the failed road.