Hundreds of articulated vehicles, including trailers and fuel tankers, have been stranded for about 48 hours along the Ifaki-Oye-Ilupeju axis of Ekiti State following the collapse of a section of the federal road at Ikupeju-Ekiti, leaving motorists and residents distressed and raising fears of serious economic and safety consequences.
The collapse has triggered a massive gridlock on the busy route, disrupting the movement of goods into and out of Ekiti State, while truck drivers lament that they have remained trapped on the road for days.
The development has also heightened safety concerns in the affected community, with many of the stranded vehicles being tankers conveying petroleum products, raising fears that any accident or fire outbreak could have devastating consequences for residents and other road users.
Former Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Arise, who visited the area, described the situation as alarming and called for urgent intervention by the Federal Government, particularly the Ministry of Works.
Arise said the scale of the gridlock was beyond what he had imagined, likening the traffic congestion to the notorious gridlock previously experienced around Apapa in Lagos State.
The former senator said he personally experienced the hardship after arriving in Ekiti from Akure, explaining that what ordinarily should have been a journey of only a few minutes from Ifaki to his destination turned into a prolonged ordeal.
According to him, he had to remain in the area for several hours because vehicles could neither enter nor exit the affected communities.
“Yesterday, I was monitoring activities on the road because my vehicle came to pick me up from Akure, where I landed at about between 3 and 4 p.m. yesterday evening. And I saw that there was no way to go in or out of Oke-Ekiti, so I had to stay in Ado for some hours,” Arise said.
“I was surprised that we had so many articulated vehicles parked on the road. Some are on the lane going into here, and those coming in from the likes of Lokoja, they couldn’t pass, and those going towards the same direction in Lokoja direction, they too couldn’t pass because the portion of the road had become badly damaged.
“We’ve been going through this for over 15 years because, as a matter of fact, it’s a total embarrassment.
“If we can reach the Honourable Minister, this needs immediate attention because the effect, the multiplier effect, is just unimaginable.
“Until I saw the extent yesterday, I could never have imagined in my mind that the traffic here is so heavy. This is almost worse than what Apapa used to be.
“The articulated vehicles, the trailers, the trucks, and they are carrying goods, they are carrying containers, they are carrying all manner of stuff that the people expecting would expect to use for this, you know, for whatever they ordered those containers for.
“If we can have some permission to work on a federal road, maybe this particular portion can quickly be fixed so that these people can continue to move.”
Meanwhile, the plight of the stranded truck drivers has further underscored the human cost of the deteriorating road and the prolonged gridlock.
One of the drivers, Akanda James Taiwo, said he had been stranded for about 48 hours as the gridlock persisted, describing the experience as a major hardship for drivers whose livelihoods depend on constant movement.
Another truck driver, Muhammed Hammed, also lamented the poor state of the road and expressed frustration over what he described as the government’s tendency to remember truck drivers and other transport workers mainly when their support is needed during elections.
The prolonged gridlock, with hundreds of trailers, trucks and fuel tankers still trapped along the route, has continued to disrupt movement and commerce while residents and motorists await urgent intervention to repair the damaged section of the federal road.
