Lagos – Ibadan road is fast becoming the farthest route in Nigeria today as commuters now spent as many as 10- 15 hours on the road before getting to their destinations.
Travellers on Monday regaled nasty experience particularly at Magboro-Berger section of the road.
The journey, which ordinarily should not be more than an hour has now become the commuters nightmare due to the recurrent traffic jam. The situation is now a national embarrassment.
The gridlock is caused by the ongoing expansion by the Julius Berger construction company .
Some motorists who tried to find alternative routes through under bridge via Kara were not so lucky as they were attacked by hoodlums while others have their vehicles submerged in the bad portion of the road.
Reacting, the supervisor of the Lagos-Sagamu section of the expressway, Wale Adebote, blamed the rain and vehicles that broke down along the expressway for the gridlock.
He said, “Three vehicles decided to pass a path made for only two at Otedola bridge. They hit themselves and that further added to the traffic because it was hard to pull them out.”
The Ogun state Traffic Road Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Babatunde Akinbiyi, said there was a joint operation by TRACE, Federal Road Safety Corps, LASTMA and the police to reduce the traffic.
Meanwhile, transporters and commercial motorcyclists took advantage of the situation to hike their fares by over 300%.
Okada now charge as high as N1000 – N2000 for a trip from Ibafo to Berger.