Okada Riders ‘Commission’ Berger-Akute Road By Force

Commercial motorcycle operators commonly called Okada who ply the Berger-Akute road, yesterday removed the barricades to the on-going flyover bridge at Odo, thereby forcefully ‘commissioning’ the bridge.

The riders obviously did this to drive home their exasperation over the slow pace of work on the road, which has been worsened by the rains of the last few days.

The action, was engineered by a particular rider whose name our correspondent immediately obtain, and warmly approved with shouts of excitement by his colleagues.

Almost immediately, they abandoned the usual route.

One of them claimed to our correspondent that he was actually the one that opened the barricade, wondering why the government should subject motorists and pedestrians on the road to unnecessary hardship.

He said there was no excuse from the government that could justify the delay, adding: “how long will it take thme to complete this bridge, we are suffering here, sometimes, falling with our passengers and yet, the government is not bothered”.

The stretch is part of the 32-kilometre N60 billion Sango Ota- Akute-Ojodu  road project, which Ogun state governor, Ibikunle Amosun had, last year, said needed additional N31 billion to complete, having alreadhy gulped in N29 billion.

In all, there are five flyovers and bridges on the project, of which the Odo bridge is one.

However, the spot had particularly been challenging given its slippery terrain, in the midst of heavy human and vehicular traffic.

As at the time that our correspondent visited the stretch, yesterday evening, the excitement of the riders was indescribable.

By today however, the barricade had returned with a caterpillar in place, as usual, to deter users.

Our correspondent also sighted some construction workers, standing by to forestall further breaches.