As early as 9.am today, heavy traffic on the Lokoja-Abuja express road started building up. Within one hour, road users coming from Abuja and passing through Lokoja were already held up, while the ones coming from the East and the West all met at a popular junction called new market junction, causing a severe traffic gridlock.
When E-Reporter News got to the scene, the whole situation has become chaotic. Travelers were sweating due to the scorching sun, while local business men and women made brisk business. Security personnel of the Nigeria Civil Defense Corp and the Nigeria Road Safety Corp were having a Herculean time controlling the stagnant traffic. This is coming two week after the same road was blocked by trailer drivers in protest to the killing of one of their colleague by a member of the Nigeria Army.
Upon inquiries made by our correspondent, it was said that previously on Saturday, there was a clash between the Federal government road revenue officers and those of the Kogi state government. While the Federal government agents claimed the Kogi state counterparts do not have the right to ply there trade on a Federal road, the State government officials claims the road is within their state and purview. This development got uglier when the Federal government officials invited Federal SARS to clear the state officials from the road on Sunday. It was reported that on Sunday morning, there was sporadic shooting by the Federal SARS to scare away the state government officials.
Consequent up the above, the truck and trailer drivers then capitalized on this ugly development to protest the increased tax levied them by blocking the Lokoja-Abuja road Monday morning. However, as at the time of filling this report, normalcy is beginning to return to the scene as negotiations seem to be giving way to protest.
