Our plight after IPOB protest, by Niger Bridge users

After personally experiencing it and speaking to motorists and commuters alike, GABRIEL EJIOFOR writes on the nightmare that has become the daily experience of those plying the Onitsha-Asaba Express¬way through the River Niger Bridge, following the near total blockage of the road by soldiers still searching for IPOB members nearly two months after the pro-Biafra protests in Onitsha, the commercial capital of Eastern Nigeria.
The River Niger Bridge at Onitsha is central to the socio-economic activ-ities taking place on a daily basis in Onitsha and other parts of the South East and South South zones. The bridge is the only physical link between the Western flank of Nigeria and the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State and, indeed, Eastern Nigeria as a whole.
Traders from Delta, Edo, Ondo, Kogi, Kwara States and beyond who come to Onitsha markets come through the bridge. Due mainly to the heavy vehicular traffic on, and deplorable state of, the road, motorists and commuters alike literally go through hell to get into and exit Onitsha. Sometimes, especially during festive periods like Christmas, New Year and Easter, or when accidents occur, motorists are compelled to spend several hours in gridlocks.
The perennial gridlocks themselves have been attributed partly to the narrowness of the bridge, which was constructed in 1963 and has, expectedly, become too small for the current volume of human and vehicular traffics on it. Security personnel, especially the police and Federal Road Safety Commission marshals who mount road blocks on the bridge, also contribute to the gridlocks.
Well, that was the situation before the administration of former Governor Peter Obi collaborated with the Federal Government under former President Good¬luck Jonathan to upgrade the road at the Onitsha end of the bridge, thereby making the bridge more accessible and free of im-possible traffic. That, coupled with the public outcry, which forced the security outfits to retreat, eased traffic flow on the bridge.
But, today, the situation has changed for the worse: the daily traffic grind from the Asaba end of the bridge to Onitsha has returned. Indeed, it has been so for over a month now, coming, as it did, in the wake of the pro-Biafra protests in January this year during which members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) allegedly blocked the bridge for several hours thereby causing traffic hold-up that stretched for several kilometres on both ends of the bridge. Ostensibly to avoid a repeat of such scenario on the bridge, the federal government drafted soldiers to guard both the Onitsha and Asaba ends of the bridge. But, rather than ease the situation, the soldiers appear to have simply ended up making it worse by blocking half of the express road at both ends. Worse still, they stopped pedestrians from crossing the bridge from either side.
Needless to say, these “security measures” have brought back daily traffic jam on both ends of the bridge with commuters bearing the brunt of the ugly situation as they now pay higher fare as well as spend more hours at the bridge before getting to their destinations.
Samuel Akhigbe, a commercial bus driver who brings passengers from Benin, lamented that since soldiers were stationed at the both ends of the bridge and blocked almost three quarters of the Onitsha-Benin Expressway on either side, the traffic situation on the road has become nightmarish for both motorists and commuters alike.
He said all the vehicles from different parts of the country will drive smoothly on the Expressway until they get to Onitsha where they are compelled to squeeze into a single lane and practically crawl to or out of the commercial city, spending several hours in the traffic in the process.
“If you escape Asaba side, then you will be faced with the Onitsha side,” he agonized. “And when coming back after the traders must have brought their goods, we face the same problem. You know nobody is happy about the whole thing. But they said it is to check all these Biafran people. I think they should relax it since the Biafran people have equally relaxed their agitation.”
Besides the soldiers who have taken over one lane of the Expressway, the police and the Road Safety personnel are also on the same road in full force. Once it is 6p.m, these security personnel, according to eyewitness¬es, allegedly deliberately orchestrate traffic hold-up to enable them collect bribe from motorists. This situation does not only affect the economic activities at Onitsha markets and by extension Anambra State and the en¬tire South East and South South as a whole, but is also likely to adversely affect the health of the road users and their vehicles. This is because each time one is trapped in a traffic, there is anxiety, which may trigger off one’s blood pressure as well as the temperature of the vehicles. No wonder, one sees a good number of broken-down vehicles littered on the roads apparently caused by overheat.
John Nweke, a trader at the multi-billion Naira Onitsha Main Market, who resides in Asaba, noted that since the Onitsha end of the road was rehabilitated, traffic on the bridge had significantly improved. This, he said, had made some of them living in Asaba (many traders in Onitsha live and own property in Asaba from where they commute to their shops daily) heave a sigh of relief. But, as if good things never last, the IPOB protest came with its aftermath and the commuters and motorists are the worse for it.
“It is too bad that what we have now is an army of occupation because the IPOB people demonstrated here. I think what they ought to have done is to quell the protest and go but they have stationed them per-manently. This is to instill fear in us. It is to inflict psychological trauma on the people. And that is why they banned pedestrians from crossing the bridge. It is unfortunate that this is happening in a democratic dis-pensation,” Nweke fumed.
Reacting to the development, Chairman of International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule Law (Intersociety), Nze Emeka Umeagbalasi accused the Nigerian security outfits led by the Nigerian Army of carefully declaring a Second Civil War against the Igbo ethnic nationality and their South-South brothers.
“Their (Ndigbo’s) sacred rights to their ancestral homeland and ethnic identity are



under intense threat,” he said of what he called ‘physical and psy-chological siege on the Igbo.’ “It is historically unheard of that a people of innocent background and character in a democratic setting cannot have the freedom to travel out and into their place. They are are blocked and made to suf¬fer and suffocate a few miles to their ancestral homes. People cannot come to their markets freely to buy and sell even during the yuletide. In the instant case, new-born children and their nursing mothers as well as elderly people, among others, are made to undergo excruciating pains and hard¬ships with many sleeping inside their vehicles and by bush sides during the yuletide. And perishable food and domestic items worth millions of Naira are lost and destroyed in the process.”
Umeagbalasi recalled that between December 2 and 17 last year, a total of 25 innocent citizens were allegedly killed at the same Onitsha Niger Bridge by the soldiers attached to the 302 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army, Onitsha led by one Col Issah Abdullahi. He further alleged that over 40 innocent citizens were also critically injured following live bullets targeted at them and shot at close range.
Said the Intersociety chief: “The same soldiers’ blockage of the road was the case at the Asaba end of the same bridge even when the security forces had given as ma¬jor reason for the killing spree at the same Niger Bridge on 2nd and 17th December 2015, against pro-Biafra peaceful protesters, the ‘blockage of the important bridge linking Southeast and South-south with the rest of Nigeria.’”
“We, therefore, wish to draw the attention of the international community concerning the ongoing persecution of the Igbo ethnic nationality by the Buhari administration in Nigeria, using carefully selected hate or xenophobic elements within the Nigerian Army,” Umeagbalasi said.
The group equally accused South East governors as chief security officers in the zone of cowardice for allegedly allowing themselves to be “overpowered by orders from above” and watch helplessly as their own people are being tormented, threatened and punished for belonging to Igbo ethnic nationality of Nigeria and for expressing their rights to self-determination as provided for in international law.”
The group called on the international community and all lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the world over to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of uttermost urgency, pull his soldiers out of the Onitsha and Asaba ends of Niger Bridge to al¬low free movement of persons and vehicles to and from the commercial city of Onitsha.
Intersociety accused the federal government of deliberately pushing the Igbo ethnic nationality to the wall.
“Yesterday, it was open and unprovoked mass shooting and killing of innocent sons and daughters of Ndigbo for exercising non-violently and peacefully their constitutional rights; today, they and those who want to come and do business with them are not even allowed free entry into and exit from Onitsha,” Umeagbalasi remonstrated.
The Vice-president (Central), Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders Associations (AMATAS) and Chairman of Marine Modern Market, Mr. Vincent Ifeme said his own contribution is passionate appeal to the president to relax security at the bridge since the IPOB members have on their part relaxed their agitation.
He said the numerous soldiers stationed at both ends of the bridge to quell the agitation of the IPOB members should be withdrawn or, in the alternative, they should remove the road blocks they mounted at both ends of the bridge and lift the ban on pedestrian crossing of the bridge, which has worsened the traffic situation in the area.