The Bida-Minna highway collapse is the second time the Bida-Minna Highway has collapsed this year, following heavy rainfall in the area in the last few weeks. This has forced users of the always busy Highway to use bush paths as an alternative route.
The incident has become an annual ritual for the bridge located at Sabongida village, a few kilometers away from the state capital, Minna, to collapse every rainy season.
The road is the major Highway linking motorists traveling from the Southern part of the country to the North, especially from Kwara-Lagos-Niger-Abuja.
The present administration awarded the construction of a less than 100-kilometer road in 2018 to Dantata and Sawoe at over N20 billion. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2019.
Bida-Minna Highway Collapses Again
Since the project took off, only about 6 kilometers of the road have been graded out of 89 kilometers, with only about 4 kilometers of asphalt laid.
With the current situation, commuters coming from the southern part of Nigeriaare now forced to follow the bush path as an alternative route to Bida after linking Mange Vunla to Lemu, the headquarters of Gbako Local Government Area, LGA.
Some commercial bus drivers plying the road lamented their hardship and called on the state government to intervene immediately.
The road has been like this for years, especially with the bridges collapsing yearly.
Efforts to reach Mamma Lafiya, the state commissioner for Works and Infrastructural Development, proved abortive.
Motorists plying the road are advised to exercise restraint at Sabon-Gida following the collapse of the bridge.
Mr. Habibu Egigogo, the spokesman of FRSC in Niger State, who gave the warning of the bridge that collapsed, said motorists are advised to take caution when approaching. And an alternative road has been created for small vehicles, while men of the FRSC Bida are at the scene controlling traffic.
Mr. Habibu said the bridge collapsed on Sunday as a result of pressure on it by heavy-duty trucks moving in large numbers.
He said the government banned articulated vehicles from following the road. Still, they always find their way to the same route at night.
According to reports, when the incident occurred on Sunday, there was gridlock on the road, making motorists and travelers spend hours before FRSC created the alternative route.
