Gridlock Returns to Douglas As Drivers Convert Area To Roadside Park

Gridlock has returned to the ever-busy Douglas Road, one of the major areas in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

Activities of commercial and private motorists who ply the road can be said to have contributed to the traffic jam, which has completely taken over the axis, thereby subjecting other road users to untold difficulties.

It would be recalled, that the chaotic traffic situation around the area had relatively subsided long ago, but recently resurfaced.

Daily Nigerian Telegraph roving reporter, who visited the area on Friday, observed that the Rotobi junction by Douglas, has been turned into an illegal motor park.

Daily Telegraph also gathered that Douglas, by old market road junction, opposite Ekeonunwa market main entrance gate, the road partition slabs have been removed, while the commercial buses now make a U- turn at that axis, thereby causing a jam on the road.

Perhaps, Governor Uzodimma’s ban on all unauthorized levies by task-forces in the State appears to have been thrown to the mud, as daily violation of traffic regulations by motorists along Douglas Road are getting out of proportion.

A commercial bus driver, who simply identified himself as Ginikachi Mere, stated that vehicles are no longer being impounded by those group of able-bodied men that used to pounce on drivers who violate traffic rules on the road.

“Some bus-Imo drivers and traders in the market are flouting the order against indiscriminate parking on this road as they line up their vehicles on the road thereby causing congestion.”

Motorists are now held in traffic for twenty minutes between St. Paul’s Catholic church to Mbaise road, which takes less than five minutes to drive through.

Meanwhile, traders selling food stuffs, footwears, clothes, condiments and cosmetics, whose wares were seen displayed on the road are said to be constituting obstruction on the major road.

In an interaction with a passer-by, Ngozi Nwekwo, she told this medium how she stopped coming to the Douglas Road market for her purchase due to the traffic gridlock she experienced last two years, expressing worry that the gridlock has resurfaced.

The General Manager of Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO), Mr. Francis Chukwu, couldn’t be reached as of press time.