Thousands Stranded, As Traffic Jam Paralyses Ibadan
Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, literally came to a standstill on Good Friday, following a vehicular gridlock that paralysed the ancient city.Tens of thousands of people, who were travel-ling outside the state for Easter celebrations, languished in the traffic jam, which began very early in the morning and continued till dusk.
As of press time on Friday, the Ibadan-Ife Expressway, which links many parts of the country to the South-West, was still blocked as even commercial motorcyclists could hardly find space to ply their trade.
The gridlock, which started very early in the day, built up heavily, as vehicles were helmed in on both sides of the expressway.
The traffic stretched from Ikire, which is about 40km away, to the Ibadan-end of the Toll Gate, in such a manner that even cyclists had no space to manoeuvre.
Looking askance and frustrated, most motor-ists and passengers, who had disembarked from their vehicles trapped in the jam, expressed disgust over what they considered as the helpless and confusing situation.
In fact, it was apparent that a lot of the passen-gers travelling from Lagos through Ibadan would keep the night on the road, as there was no sign of the traffic easing by 7 p.m.
The gridlock spilled over to such busy parts of the Ibadan metropolis like Bodija, Old Ife Road, Akobo and Ashi, with people spending at least two hours on a journey that hitherto took them 10 minutes.
According to some witnesses, the incident was caused by an accident involving a trailer loaded with a popular brand of soft drink, which fell by the middle of the road, spilling the contents on the road.
Though the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) were around to control traffic, they were almost overwhelmed by the confusion caused by the gridlock.
