Commuters and residents in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were stranded for hours on Monday morning following a heavy security lockdown and roadblocks placed at major points of entry into Abuja before the planned #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest. It caused severe traffic gridlock that halted traffic flow into and within the city.
As of going to press, drivers on the Nyanya, Karu, Mararaba, Masaka, Jikwoyi, Karshi, and Orozo axes were building up in unwinding bumper-to-bumper traffic, with some drivers complaining of being delayed for over three hours with no forward movement. The same was experienced on the Dei-Dei, Mpape, Dutse, and Kubwa roads, where additional security roadblocks were mounted, further congesting the roads.
The gridlock followed a joint protest by Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, among other activists demanding the release of arrested IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. The protesters had earlier threatened to march to the Presidential Villa to make their demand clearer.
Some frustrated motorists lamented that the barricades were an unjust punishment for law-abiding citizens. Parents, civil servants, and school bus drivers lamented hours on the road with no movement at the Nasarawa/Nyanya boundary checkpoint, a favorite haunt.
Father Mr. Ebenezer Ulomi explained that he had to abandon his car and travel on a motorcycle to take his kids to school. “Must the children’s destiny be delayed because of a protest? If one wants to go to the Villa, why should it bother us in the periphery? This is punishment,” he said.
Across the Nyanya, Jikwoyi, and Karshi areas, several civil servants were seen trekking back home after being unable to find commercial transport to their workplaces.
Mrs. Akinola Oluwatosin, another commuter, decried the situation: “I left home at 5:30 a.m., and I’m still here. It’s unfair collective punishment. They know where the protesters are why not go after them instead of blocking everyone?”
At Redeemed Junction, Nyanya, a pregnant woman, Mrs. Aishat Abdul, said she was unable to reach a clinic in Asokoro due to the congestion. “Even Okadas can’t move. I’m stuck,” she lamented.
Fourteen-year-old Mariam Adamu, a student of Government Secondary School, Karu, stated that she had been trapped in traffic since 6:00 a.m. “I’m tired and hungry. My gate is going to close, and I may not enter,” she said to our reporter.
A Ministry of Agriculture civil servant, Malam Usman Bako, left his car stranded as he got stuck for over two hours. “This kind of security measure does not have regard to the working class. How do you secure a city by locking it up?” he queried.
When LEADERSHIP spoke with MOPOL Junction, NNPC, and Kugbo Bus Stops, tempers flared as commuters persisted in parking their vehicles and walking.
The reporter added that most of the shops and open-space vendors in Nyanya and Karu Markets had still not opened their businesses by 9 a.m. because many of the traders had remained in the same traffic congestion that was caused by the massive security deployment and partial lockdown.
