FEATURES Ibillo: A foot path has now become a road
A failed portion of the Benin-Abuja expressway has led to the use of a foot path as an alternative road, and it is now on the verge of collapse.
Three months ago a portion of the BeninAbuja expressway failed. The affected stretch is 200 metres in length, and it forms part of Ibillo in Akoko Edo local government area of Edo State. In order to continue with the journey an alternative route within Ibillo which skirts the affected section was found. It is an old footpath which has now expanded over the months to become a road.
Under the combined pressure of trailers, trucks, large and small vehicles, a new road has formed. Every day the road itself endures an impossible, abnormal weight, a fall out of the combined mass of all these vehicles. The fact that we are still in the rainy season hardly helps the situation. It was never intended to be a road, but circumstances have created this unfolding drama.
The new road that has formed is about 1,000 metres in length and could be walked in 15 minutes. It is muddy, contains many craters and sometimes in the course of the day, a section of it would fail. This occurs several times each day. The road would collapse and travelers will be stranded for hours, until the local youth come up with a brainwave. They would apply wood and stones or device some brilliant method, and soon the line comes alive again. Sometimes, all of a sudden the young men of the community who are helping with the road, will begin to fight as this reporter witnessed recently. The men fight within one of the craters, and left and right of them are cars and other types of vehicles, eager to get out of the nightmare. It is easy to lose your temper if you are stuck in the gridlock at Ibillo. But it’s also easy to remain calm or to do a bit of both. As a consequence of all this, many drivers now avoid Ibillo.But even the new routes chosen by the drivers, present their own problems. 1,000 metres of a bad road is having negative consequences for the entire area, and many vital hours are lost by travelers who use the Ibillo route to get to various parts of the country.
David Tabuko, drives a trailer which conveys large drain pipes. He tells Daily Trust “The road collapsed three months ago. I have spent 3 days on the queue. On that occasion a tanker fell here in Ibillo. The government should come and help us to fix the bad portion of the expressway.” Rotimi Afowosoro, a local, adds that the state of the road has implications for the local economy. His words “Because of the state of the road, people from Kogi and Abuja cannot access our weekly market which holds on Saturdays. It is a very bad situation.” He argues “students from Lampese, a neighbouring community who are schooling in Ibillo, are no longer going to school as a result of the poor state of the road. The degraded state of the road has implications for education in the area. Blessing, who sells bush meat, states that her business has declined somewhat, as fewer vehicles are passing through Ibillo, unlike in the past when the affected section of the expressway was in fairly good condition. More vehicles passing through Ibillo, means more money for her and many other traders, she reasons. According to her “In the past I used to make up to N7,000, but now I will be lucky to realise N4,000 each day.” Rotimi Ojo John says that some sections of the security forces turn up at Ibillo at night to direct traffic. Akorede Salam, who is travelling from Abuja to Akure, opines that he has already done five hours at Ibillo, while waiting for the line of cars to move. Every day many travelers have to wait at Ibillo for a considerable period before continuing with their journeys. But this enlarged foot path along which many vehicles both large and small pass every day, will soon collapse for it is already very weak.