Nyanya blast turns traffic hell

Commuting has turned difficult for thousands of residents of Nasarawa working in Abuja in the wake of last week’s bomb attack on a bus station. The attack which killed up to 80 confirmed, left 216 in hospital with injuries and dismembered dozens more bodies has prompted intense security crackdown on Nyanya district of Abuja. Nyanya […]

Commuting has turned difficult for thousands of residents of Nasarawa working in Abuja in the wake of last week’s bomb attack on a bus station.

The attack which killed up to 80 confirmed, left 216 in hospital with injuries and dismembered dozens more bodies has prompted intense security crackdown on Nyanya district of Abuja.

Nyanya borders Nasarawa’s Mararaba area, from where thousands of Abuja workers commute daily.

Military checkpoints mounted in the wake of the bomb have tripled commute time for thousands of workers living in Nasarawa.

Residents there speak of having to wake up and leave their homes as early as 4 or 5 am in anticipation of long queues and the rigours of getting through checkpoints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5-hour delays

Mararaba axis is known for its tortuous traffic jams stretching for kilometers entering Abuja.

The less than 30kilometre drive, which without traffic takes less than 30 minutes, takes up between one and two hours at peak traffic hour.

The new checkpoints mean commuters spend up to five hours on the road.

Ado resident Salisu Mahmoud, who works at the Federal Secretariat, managed to reach AYA roundabout at 8.25 Wednesday morning—four hours after leaving his home and staying stuck in traffic.

“Someone who left Jos [more than 300km away] has arrived Abuja and we haven’t reached office, and we left home at five,” he said.

New modes

Residents commuting into Abuja have taken to daredevil motorcycling to beat the four-to-five-hour standstill in traffic.

For hours every morning, motorcyclists pick up passengers from Mararaba and ride against oncoming traffic all the way to AYA, cutting down commute time to 20 minutes.

They charge as much as N300 to N400 for the gut-stopping trip.

“I simply take a bike and run one-way to AYA, then a taxi into town,” said journalist Ikechukwu Ibe, who took to one-way means of transport to beat assignment deadlines in the mornings.

“It is expensive and frightening, but I can arrive in town on time.”

Checkpoint soldiers have not bothered to stop the daily motorbike gangs massing against traffic. Instead they have moved their checks to include pillion passengers and their riders by forcing them to disembark and walk through checkpoints on foot.

The altered means of transport has pushed up commuting cost to around N800 a day, complained one resident, Josh Yemi.

It has also regularly left many stranded at bus stops. Welfare schemes for civil servants run daily bus services to pick up their staff resident in parts of Nasarawa immediately bordering Abuja—Mararaba, Masaka and Ado.

Faced with five-hour delays many resorted to waiting at AYA for their passengers.

And the passenger flux has altered car fares and continually pushes many drivers to cut corners.

A taxi driver, confronted for carrying four passengers in the back of his car by Vehicle Inspection Officers Wednesday morning, pleaded, “I know I am carrying four in the back, but it is because of the traffic. I just wanted to help. But everything else [referring to his car particulars] is intact.”