Femi OGUNLANA
Since the EndSARS protest started to rock the nation especially the southern part of the country, Ogbomoso has been experiencing a reduction in the number of articulated vehicles that lunge through the city.
This has become more pronounced this week following the escalation of the protests in Lagos, Ibadan and Oyo cities.
Ogbomoso lying along the ever busy trunk-A road linking the south western part of the country to the north has for decades suffered the menace of articulated vehicles consisting of trailers, fuel tankers, containers etc. They are often the trigger of intense, long-winding traffic hold-ups; damage to properties, vehicles and motorcycles from accidents; and worst of all untimely deaths of several people both within and without the city.
Residents were fed up with this trailer challenge that last year there was a public rally at Takie Square, organized by religious leaders. There was a strident call on the federal government to hasten work on the ongoing Ogbomoso-Oyo section of the Ibadan-Ilorin dual carriage way so that among others the volume of these articulated vehicles lumbering via Ogbomoso municipal would reduce but all to no avail.
However, in recent days, especially from Tuesday this week, when the protests took a violent turn elsewhere, these trailers had been held up elsewhere giving Ogbomoso a deserved relief from them.
Ogbomoso High School through Caretaker through Takie, through Adiatu have become free of this menace and smaller vehicles and motorcycles now ply the road with relative ease, no traffic jams and less danger constituted by these snake vehicles.
Nonetheless, the loss in economic value cannot be quantified in a jiffy.
A driver, John Aderibigbe told The Insight that driving on the road has become less risky since ‘these trailers could not travel due to the riots springing up across the country. The trailers are a real problem to road users in this part of the country.’
Another commentator, Kehinde Adedigba also expressing concern on the menace of trailers in the city appealed to the federal government to quickly complete the new express way and to consider as a permanent solution, the development of railway across the country ‘so that there will be less reliance on articulated vehicles for transportation of goods.’
In the meantime, let the people enjoy the trailer break.
