FERMA Begins Construction On Abuja-Keffi Road Unannounced, Leaves Hundreds Stranded

Due to massive gridlock, business and commercial activity have come to a halt on the Abuja-Keffi border between Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Nasarawa State.

Hundreds of thousands of private and public personnel have been stranded as a result of the gridlock caused by road repair work being carried out by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

According to a DAILY POST investigation, the FERMA closed off the lane from Keffi to Abuja without prior notice to road users.

Our reporter observed that the road was closed off at Sharp Corner, Mararaba, in order to construct a new bridge to address the road’s perennial erosion.

The road was reportedly closed off in the middle of the night by two big equipment without an other route for passage.

When DAILY POST visited the construction site, highly armed security personnel were observed providing security backup to the workers to prevent furious road users from attacking them.

Our journalist reported that the gridlock, which began to form at the site as early as 5 a.m., had reached a crisis stage at the time of this report, having traveled 5 kilometers to Ado hamlet.

Due to the hopelessness of the situation, enraged commercial and private car owners stranded in the bottleneck were observed ditching their vehicles.

Desperate commercial truck and trike owners aggravated the problem by forming additional lanes that made it impossible to turn around.

Commercial motorbike riders, known as Okada, have been making brisk business from folks wanting to get to Abuja for work, taking advantage of the traffic.

The DAILY POST reported that the trip from Mararaba to Nyayan, which used to cost N100 per passenger, now costs N500, and the trip from Mararaba to the AYA Bridge costs N700 per person instead of the typical N150.

Engineer Tony Emeka, a FERMA employee, told DAILY POST that his organization has a deadline to complete the bridge in order to limit erosion on the highway, hence the urgency before heavy rains arrive.

He pleaded with the enraged motorists to bear with the government, explaining that the agency was carrying out the work and speeding it up in the public good.

Civil servants and private workers, on the other hand, who couldn’t afford the costly motorcycle costs were observed returning home after making phone calls to their offices, while others chose to walk to work.