AEPB, police, work on Kurudu market road
The Abuja Environmental Protection Agency (AEPB) and Nigeria Police should please move to the Kurudu market along Nyanya-Karshi road to clear the continuous obstruction of traffic along the road, especially in the evenings by petty traders and those who park along the road to patronise them. Persistent obstruction of traffic at the market is constituting […]
The Abuja Environmental Protection Agency (AEPB) and Nigeria Police should please move to the Kurudu market along Nyanya-Karshi road to clear the continuous obstruction of traffic along the road, especially in the evenings by petty traders and those who park along the road to patronise them.
Persistent obstruction of traffic at the market is constituting serious danger to lives as the traders have found pleasure in freely displaying their commodities on the road while motorists sheepishly park at that spot to enter the market or trade there, even as a police station is located opposite the market. Suffice it to say that some traffic policemen sometimes stand there to control movement of vehicles but that hardly solves the problem as they are not consistent or forceful enough to handle the stubborn traders and motorists.
This no doubt often results in accidents with attendant threat to lives and property. The road which runs from Nyanya-Karu is always very busy with vehicles of all types cruising by-trucks, cars, tankers hurling petrol, tractors, motorcycles, commercial, private, school, hospital and company staff buses and cars, tricycles, refuse collectors and pedestrians all use the road from the Karu-Nyanya axis to the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and Nigeria Police housing estates in Kurudu and Karshi as well as those going farther. Besides, many school buses conveying children to and from schools in the area use the road.
The obstacle constituted by the traders and owners of vehicles at the Kurudu market does not only impede movement along that road but constitutes grave danger as a single mistake could result in huge casualties.
The authorities concerned should please take appropriate action to avert a possible disaster at that market, especially as long hurl vehicles including petrol tankers and trailers also ply that road, even on high speed. This calls for urgent action from the FCT authorities, and even the Nigerian Army, Navy and police who have estates nearby. Members and families of these organisations are being exposed to the dangers posed by the menace and this should be checked in time. Personnel of the Abuja Environmental Sanitation Agency (AEPB) usually go after roadside traders, dispossessing them of their wares, even when some of such traders do not constitute any serious danger to road users at certain locations. Therefore, it is expected of the AEPB and the police to identify areas of urgent concern such as the Kurudu market road and move in there, especially at the rush hours of the morning and in the evening between 5pm and 8pm. Traders, especially teenage girls selling vegetables and other hawkers take advantage of the poor structure of the market to constitute traffic nuisance on the road, and encourage motorists to park right on the road to patronize them. There should be strict enforcement of relevant rules along that road. It gladdens my heart to know that many military officers, serving and retired as well as important personalities in various spheres of live in the nearby Nigerian Army Housing Estate and pass through the road daily, apart from the high population of ordinary people who equally ply the road. I am sure none of the aforementioned classes of people would like to stand the look of a petrol tanker running out of control into the market while members of their families are there carrying out their legitimate businesses. A stitch in time saves nine.
Mitchell Chukwu writes from Army Estate, Kurudu, Abuja