Dons Eze
UGWU-ONYEAMA: SCENE OF FREQUENT SHEDDING OF HUMAN BLOOD
The about five kiịometres hilly stretch of road from Enugu Metropoịis, enroute the Ninth Mile Corner, along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, popularly called Ugwu-Onyeama, has become synonymous with Golgotha, scene of human sacrifice, place of many killings.
Ugwu-Onyeama has remained a mightmare. For lvery ong years, that particular stretch of road has been under construction, while almost on daily basis, uncountable number of human lives and valuable properties are lost.
The reason are blockages placed along the road both by different government security agencies and workers of the construction company working on the road, coupled with the very steep gradients of the hill.
On one side of that five kilometers road, are about three check points manned by both the personnel of the Nigerian Army and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), while on the side, workers of the construction company, place heavy barricades on some parts of the road.
The resultant effect has not only been long queues of vehicles that stretch on both sides of the road, but more tragically, the daily loss of human lives and destruction of properties, when very often, some articulated vehicles descending the hill ram them on these long queues of vehicles.
Lamenting their plights while speaking to Peoplesvoice, some of the commuters complained that the blockages had resulted to several accidents with attendant loss of human lives and destruction of valuable properties.
Mr. Ifeanyi Ude, a mini bus driver who plies Enugu to Ninth Mile Corner, recalled how a family of five who were on their way to Church service perished on the road when a truck fully loaded with cement fell on their car while trying to negotiate a barricade placed by the construction company working on the road.
He claimed that a day hardly passes without one accident or the other happening on the road, and wondered why it is taking the construction company donkey years to complete the road project.
Mr. Ude said he could not understand why workers of the construction firm would be blocking the road, thus causing hardships on commuters.
Mr. Chidi Obidinma, another transporter whose Sienna car plies Enugu to Onitsha, said he had earlier lost one of his vehicles on the road when a big truck rammed on it, but was lucky not to have lost any life in the accident.
Mr. Obidinma decried the many check points mounted along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway by different security agencies, and in particular at the Ugwu-Onyeama section of the road.
According to him, at the foot of Ugwu-Onyeama hill, there is a check point, manned by both personnel of the Nigerian Army and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), while at the neck of the hill, is another check point manned by personnel of the Nigerian Army, and on top of the hill, there is another check point manned by personnel of the Nigerian Army.He wondered what was so special about Ugwu-Onyeama that security agencies would be mounting several road blocks at the place, thereby causing unnecessary traffic hold-ups that often result to road accidents.
