Motorists and other road users in Jema’a, Sanga, Kaura and Jaba Local Government Areas in the South of Kaduna State, have decried the deplorable state of roads in their locality.
The motorists, who spoke on Saturday, cited the Kafanchan-Kagoma-Kwoi, Kagoro-Manchok and Forest-Sanga-Akwanga roads among those in dire need of attention.
Malam Audu Balarabe, a commercial driver, stressed the poor condition of the roads had forced commercial vehicle drivers in the area to jerk up their fares.
“A journey that is supposed to take a small amount of time, takes several hours owing to the terrible nature of these roads. This has caused commercial operators like me to increase our fares because of the stress we go through, driving on our roads,”.
Another commercial driver, Bobai Monada, who regularly plied the Forest-Sanga road, spoke of how he took his vehicle to the mechanic for repairs at least twice a week because of the bad road.
“The better part of the money one makes is spent on one repair or the other every time because of the potholes on the roads. It is really a pathetic situation down here because we are suffering and we don’t know when all this will be over,”.
However, some repair works could be seen going on at the Forest-Sanga road when our correspondent visited.
On his part, Sunday Kuyambana, noted the deplorable state of the roads was impacting negatively on the local economy of the people in the area.
“This Kagoma to Kwoi road has really brought us untold hardship. It is hindering our social and economic activities. It is rather sad that we are still grappling with issues of basic amenities like roads in this age and time when other countries have gone far,”.
Godwin Bala described himself as a victim of the bad roads in the area, noting that he was lucky to have survived an accident on the Kagoro-Manchok road in 2019.
“Last year, I was traveling to Jos on that road when I was involved in a terrible accident with another vehicle. If not God, maybe I would have been long gone by now but here I am, talking and sharing my experience with you on the state of our roads. The bad condition of the road contributed very greatly to that accident and the road is still the way it has been all this while,”.
Bala called on the elected representatives from the region to use their good offices to attract the intervention of the relevant authorities.
For Haruna Sani, a passenger, he blamed the worsening condition of the roads on the movement of articulated vehicles carrying overloads of liquids and dry cargoes.
Sani called for the creation of alternative routes for articulated vehicles to move cargoes.
According to him, articulated vehicles carrying more than 45,000 litres or 35 tons of dry cargo should not be allowed to ply those roads.
Others who spoke, called on governments at both the State and Federal levels to come to their aid by reconstructing or rehabilitating the roads.
