Angry Benue youths on Wednesday took over the Gboko-Aliade highway protesting the poor state of the road and the collapse of Nomnor bridge near Gboko Rice Mill.
The youths who trooped out in their hundreds, barricaded the road, preventing any form of vehicular movement on the busy federal road.
The development which left motorists and commuters stranded around Nomnor River Rice Mill, Gboko Local Government Area, LGA, of the state forced motorists to seek alternative routes to link Aliade in neighbouring Gwer LGA.
The youths who sang solidarity songs and demanded urgent action from the Federal Government to fix the road pointed out that they had a few days ago protested over the state of the road but no one listened to their outcry.
One of the protesters who identified himself as Koko Lumver lamented that life had become unbearable for residents of communities on the stretch of the major link road; “it is either heavy-duty trucks are falling or sometimes in a bid to avoid very bad portions of the road, motor owners drive through our farms, destroying our produce.
“And finally today after the heavy rain of last night the bridge linking Rice Mill and Fidei Polytechnic settlements was washed away by flood, thereby worsening our situation.
“So we cannot continue to watch because the destroyed bridge will also affect our people who use it daily. We are peaceful in our demands but we are so angry because before this happened we had protested over the state of the road but nobody listened to us until the situation got to this point.
“We have advised all motorists to seek alternative routes for now because the bridge is in a bad state and the road itself is in a state of disrepair.”
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the Federal Controller of Works in charge of Benue state were unsuccessful.
