Traffic: Agony as commuters got trapped in FERMA induced gridlock

By Stanley Onyekwere

Many commuters playing the ever-busy Mararaba-Masaka axis along the Abuja-Keffi express way were yesterday’s morning trapped in an agonizing traffic gridlock, thereby subjecting them to nightmarish experiences.

It was gathered that the gridlock, which was majorly caused by a road maintenace work being carried out by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) at the popular Sharp Corner section  of the Abuja keffi express way, in Mararaba, was said to have stretched beyond Ungwan Zakara, near Keffi.

Our correspondent reports that even though the Nyanya-Mararaba road is notorious for its perennial traffic gridlock, the latest situation got to an unprecedented level in the area.

However, it took the timely intervention from relevant road traffic control and management agencies to manage the situation, which almost persisted throughout the day.

As expected, many stranded passengers lamented FERMA’s unprofessional handling of the work, which completely blocked the sharp corner interchange thereby preventing easy vehicular and human movement from Nyanya and the city centre into the densely populated Mararaba and other adjoining towns.

It was observed that most of the stranded passengers who resorted to treking to Nyanya to board vehicle, were forced to pay fare as high as 300-400 naira to Area1 and Wuse, while many others were forced to return home.

Equally, the commuters lamented that the severity of Tuesday’s traffic jam was avoidable if FERMA had carried out the work at the weekends or late at nights.

Also, some trapped car owners who could not abandon their vehicles in the middle of the road, had no option than to relax their car sits to catch some sleep while waiting for miracle to happen.