Nyanya blast: motorists groan under Kugbo checkpoint 

Motorists entering the Abuja City Centre from the Nyanya-Maraba and Karu axis now groan under a new military checkpoint at Kugbo.

The checkpoint was on Thursday, last week moved to its present location from the Naynya-Maraba boundary popularly known as Mopol Checkpoint, following Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility for last Monday’s deadly blast at Nyanya motor park.

At the new location, all vehicles entering Abuja city from all satellite towns from Nyanya to Keffi must go through a narrow passage that can take a vehicle at a time. 

The same fate awaits those who live from Karu, Jukwoyi, kpegyi, Kurudu, Gidan Mangoro, Orozo and Karshi.

Motorists told newsmen yesterday that they now spend as much as two and a half to three hours to pass through the checkpoint manned by a combined team of the various military and intelligence organizations.

Angry motorists complained of the several waste of man hours at the checkpoint and wondered why all motorists were made to undergo such untold suffering, considering that the checks could be better and more effectively conducted without members of the public been made to go through such sufferings.

A motorist who did not want his name in print said, “why do we have to be subjected to this type of torture? Why not deploy modern technology that can detect bombs as promised by the Federal Capital Administration? And if the security checkpoints must be set up, why not set up one along the Nyanya Maraba Road and another one along the Karu Road?

“Just imagine a situation where I have to spend two and a half hours between Orozo and Kugbo which ordinarily should take less than twenty minutes. This is unfair. We are not against the military doing their jobs or trying to keep terrorists at bay but I am sure they are better and more efficient ways to do this”.

Unable to stand the stress of the long hours on the queue, some car owners abandoned their cars and hoped on motorcycles which ferried them across the to the Kugbo hill from where they took taxi into the town.

However, owing to the very limited number of commercial vehicles that were able to cross the checkpoint, the crow of commuters at the hill overwhelmed the commercial vehicles, leaving a large crowd of commuters stranded.