DESPITE deteriorating insecurity, snowballing cost of living and rising cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, many citizens will travel home this Yuletide to reunite with their family for Christmas and New Year festivities. However, two major concerns that will prevent sizeable number of people from travelling are the poor and unsafe state of the nation’s highways. Senior Investigative Reporter, Marcus Fatunmole, examines some flashpoints in the nation’s roads and how motorists and travellers can arrive at their destinations safely.

A NUMBER of Nigerian roads have described as “death trap,” “highway to hell,” “Road to Death” among others, not necessarily because of many fatal crashes that occur on them, but because of high rate of abduction and robbery they witness.

Citizens like Oluwabukola Lawrence, a resident of Abuja would have to undertake prayer session before embarking on a journey outside the city.

“I’ve been in Abuja for the past three years, and I’ve been afraid to travel by road out of the city. I can’t afford the cost of air ticket. But, this year, I’ve prayed fervently enough; I think I should go and see my parents this Christmas,” she said.

The Abuja-Lokoja and Abuja-Kaduna highways which connect the southern and northern parts of the country have recorded some of the most atrocious criminalities in recent time.

Fully loaded buses have been flagged down at gun points and the passengers abducted but released after payments of ransome.

In some cases, after payment of large ransom, abductees were killed. These are some of the fears of people like Mrs Lawrence who now thinks twice before embarking on any journey on Nigerian roads.

The abduction of hundreds of students of Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina state on December 11 is the latest most scandalous and appalling incident that climaxed dangerous dimension insecurity is taking under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

Poor condition of the roads, large-scale corruption among security officers on the highways, overspeeding by drivers, faulty vehicles are some of the factors responsible for tragedies on the Nigerian highways.

It is usually easy for marauders to halt moving vehicles, brandish weapons and bolt away with people and valuable materials where roads are bad.

When policemen or soldiers position themselves on roads and collect bribes from motorists, their action prevents road users from differentiating the officers from criminals who dress like them.

Here are some of the dangerous roads below and cases of abductions that have taken place on those roads in recent time.

Abuja–Kaduna Highway

This is arguably the most notorious road for kidnapping in Nigeria. Within the last three years, hundreds of persons have been abducted on the major road that not only links the northern part of the country to the south but to the nation’s capital, Abuja.

On November 15, 2020, nine students of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State were kidnapped between Kaduna and Abuja. They were released days later by combined efforts of the Nigerian army and other security agencies, after reports had claimed ransoms were paid.

On September 8, 2019, six people were kidnapped along Abuja – Kaduna highway. The abductees were travelling from Offa, Kwara state.in a commercial vehicle belonging to a company operated by the Offa community.

The abductors would have had another field day on the road on November 27 2020, but for the prompt intervention of the troops of Operation Thunder Strike, according to a statement from the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/yuletide-flashpoints-for-abduction-crashes-on-nigerian-highways/

2nd ftc today, Guys cheers!
it is really disheartening seeing our one and only country, Nigeria is becoming failed nation