- Safiu Kehinde
An aggrieved commuter has called out the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, over a damaged segment of a bridge along the Lagos-Benin expressway.
The commuter whose name was not disclosed had in a video shared on Instagram on Sunday called the attention of Umahi to the deplorable state of the bridge which stretched across a river.
As captured in the video, a lone accident involving a truck had fallen on the bridge, rendering the lane unmotorable for other vehicles which were held in heavy standstill.
The commuter would expose two large potholes on the bridge with the rivers showing beneath them.
While it could not be ascertained if the potholes were caused by the truck which fell on bridge, the aggrieved commuter accused the Minister of Works for abandoning existing bridges in the country while taking loans to build the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
The damaged bridge, according to the man had rendered Nigeria economy stranded as several trucks conveying goods have been held in the traffic for the past two hours.
“This is an expressway, yet our Minister dey do Lagos-Calabar highway to nonsense. Do you know how many vehicles dey pass here.
“As I’m speaking to you now, several trailers with goods don dey parked which means the economy of Nigeria is affected. Everywhere don dey shutdown.
“The economy of Nigeria is on standstill. Now, Lagos-Calabar highway as dem never finish am, nothing is hsut down. There is nothing on standstill.
“They are borrowing more money to build the road wey we no dey use. The one wey we dey use, he dey abandoned.
“But this road now as it breakdown, everywhere is on standstill. And we have a Minister of Works wasting money on Lagos-Calabar expressway.” He said.
The commuter further held that Umahi, providing he has economic sense, should know the significance of the Lagos-Benin bridge on Nigeria’s economy and see to its renovation rather than the focus of Lagos-Calabar highway.
“I no know whether our Minister get small economic sense. But Mr. Minister let me educate you.
“If you have small economic sense, you will know that this road alone is affecting Nigeria’s economy. But that Calabar expressway did not affect anybody.
“The Minister is not thinking please. Those wey una dey close to am, make una talk to am maybe he go comeback to his senses.
“We are stranded here now. We have been here for over two hours now, nothing is happening.” He added.