Fears as trailers divert to Akala Highway, where 2 blind schools are located as Ogbomoso – Oyo road becomes impassable
Khalid ABRAHAM
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The recently commissioned 76.6km Ogbomoso – Iseyin road named Alao-Akala Highway, constructed by the Governor Seyi Makinde administration, has now been taken over by articulated vehicles (trailers) and other heavy duty vehicles therefore predisposing the road to early damages as well as endangering other road users including pedestrians.
The other fear is that along the route within Ogbomoso are two special public schools catering for the blind – The Blind Centre (primary school) and Adeniran Memorial Grammar School, AMGS (which aside regular students caters for blind students pursuing secondary education).
“The presence of trailers in large numbers on this road constitutes great risk for the blind students especially and other young children,” a teacher at AMGS, who craved anonymity told Ogbomoso Insight at the close of school Wednesday. “The school is closed for the day but we can’t allow the blind among them to undertake the trek to their abode since trailers have taken over the road.”
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The Ogbomoso – Oyo road, plied by these ubiquitous trailers that connects the northern and southern parts of the country, has virtually become impassable because of the dilapidated condition of the road within the Ogbomoso metropolis, a development that has provoked indigenes to appeal to the federal and state governments to intervene to get the road repaired, a call that has however gone unheeded.
The articulated vehicles often heavily laden transport goods between the north and the south and because of the poor condition of the road often cause gridlock in the Ogbomoso metropolis with the hold ups extending as long as 50kms either side on a normal day stretching as long as Oyo towards Ibadan and to Jebba junction towards Ilorin.
“The road has become a nightmare. It’s a death trap. Businesses are paralyzed, peoples’ lives are endangered, valuable manhour is wasted, it is disastrous,” an indigene, Mr. Collins Adefila told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
Frustrated, the trailers have resorted to taking Ibadan – Iseyin route to link Ogbomoso and vice-versa, which is a state road.
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Concerned people of Ogbomoso have drawn attention to this fearing the newly commissioned Akala Highway would be damaged by these trucks just as “they now endanger lives. The Ogbomoso – Iseyin road is not wide, and within Ogbomoso, in the axis it passes through, children dash across the road, and so, they constitute danger,” it’s further stated.
When ogbomosoinsightonline.com visited the axis Wednesday, it’s chaotic. Infact youths in the area, that is, Randa area towards Blind Centre, have blocked the road because all through the stretch trailers swarm causing a gridlock and inconveniencing other road users.
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“It is bad,” another commentator, Mariam Jimoh, said. “I blame the federal government for this situation. The road causing all these problems is less than a kilometre, that is Bowen University Teaching Hospital to Caretaker junction. If this portion is fixed, we will not be talking of these problems again. Why is it difficult to fix the road? If this portion is fixed all these problems will disappear but inexplicably they refused to do anything.
“Meanwhile, there is one permanent solution, let them complete the new Ibadan – Ilorin highway which is less than 7km to completion, which also falls within the Ogbomoso axis. If this road which started since 2001 is completed, there will be less pressure on that old road and we will have peace in Ogbomoso.”
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