Government election in Delta State.
Within the town, the traffic also crawled as people jostled to make weekend chopping for their families.
The commuters entering Asaba from the Onitsha end were stranded as traffic at the Onitsha –Asaba Head Bridge came to a snarl.
According to the travellers, police officers, members of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and authorities from the state government, announced to them that gate to the bridge would remain locked till 3pm because of the ongoing local government election in Delta state.
The travellers, going back to their various bases, mostly in the south-west, said they have been stuck in the resulting gridlock for over six hours with no respite in sight.
We have been here since 5:30 am,” one of the stranded commuters who identified himself as uzu, told Nigerian Tribune.
The traffic is at standstill. The bridge is locked he said. I can’t believe that they can lock a federal bridge because of the local
government elections.”“They didn’t even announce to the general public that the head bridge will be closed for some time.
Uzu said the authorities present “even scammed” the depressed travellers.
He explained that the entrance to the bridge from Onitsha was opened after the travelers protested but that the exit remain closed.
A driver who gave his name as Charles Dayo told our correspondent that he was in the traffic for more than six hours from Onitsha to Asaba, a journey that usually took 15-20 minutes.
Nobody can believe it. They say the bridge will not be opened till the election is over. Now the traffic stretches to Upper Iweka”, Dayo said.
Mr Osemie Okolie, a businessman, based in Asaba, said that it would have been better if the election lasted for a few hours to enable people to go about their normal life..
Reacting to the situation, Mr Sunday Ajayi, the Anambra sector commander, of the Federal Road Safety Corps, in a Telephone
interview, said its officers and men had been working relentlessly to put the traffic under control.
Ajayi said the corps had been in the area since 7 a.m. trying to control and ease the congestion.
He noted that the grid lock, was because of the local government elections in Delta State that the bridge was shut down.
Mr Ajayi told Nigerian Tribune that there was a press release by the FRSC to announce the decision to shut the bridge.
The press release, he said, was sent on Thursday, January 4, but did not gain traction in the media with rarely any broadcast, print or online media bearing the news.
Elections will be conducted in 25 local government areas of Delta state on 06/01/18. There will be restrictions on vehicular movement along the Onitsha- Asaba expressway from 6:00hrs to 15:00hrs,” the statement read.
The roads will be closed at the boundaries between Anambra and Delta states (Head bridge), from 6:00hrs till 15:00hr, and that motorists from Anambra are advised to go through Enugu- Ajaokuta – Okene–Ibadan-Lagos.
I will assure you and Nigerians using this road that we will not leave until normalcy is returned to the road today,” he concluded.
and then