The deadly checkpoint on Bauchi-Jos highway

[DT]

Coming from Bauchi, a military check point at the foot of the hill that connects to Jos, the Plateau State capital, has remained a nightmare to motorists.

Situated at Sabon Garin Narabi village, the checkpoint is notorious for two reasons. First, keeping travellers on very long queues for hours, but more sadly, causing very deadly accidents which have claimed dozens of lives. Motorists coming from Jos come face to face with the roadblock soon after descending the steep slope, and on many occasions, heavily loaded articulated vehicles have lost control due to one reason or the other, causing deadly crashes.

Residents of Narabi village and officials of Toro local Government Council said between 2011 and 2012, about 100 people have have been killed and over 200 vehicles damaged at the checkpoint.

A resident recalled that in April 2011, a fuel tanker lost control and rammed into a convoy of vehicles stopped at the checkpoint, spilled its contents and started a fire which killed over 50 people.

"Seventeen vehicles at the checkpoint were engulfed in flames. By our estimation, around 50 people died," the resident who does not want his name in print told Daily Trust early this week.

He said about four months ago, a truck lost control at the point, went straight into a stand where a man sells tea and killed many of his customers and people at the surroundings.

Another resident recalled: "Only last week, six people were killed here in front of us and many people and their vehicles were burnt beyond recognition. Up till Toro local government and relevant authorities have not been able to identify their families."

A senior official of Toro local government who also preferred to remain anonymous also recalled that when Governor Isa Yuguda visited the scene of an accident at the military check point just before the 2011 general election, the erstwhile local government chairman told him that he was still searching for the families some people that were killed in the deadly accident that killed over 50.

Speaking further, the official said: "Within a week we record between three to four accidents along the road, not only civilians sometimes even security personnel were killed and hundreds of cars damaged at the military checkpoint."

Personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps in both Bauchi and Plateau State said the road block is wrongly placed at that point because it is at the foot of the hill and there are tendencies that long trucks loaded with heavy goods may lose control and cause deadly crash.

Officials of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers NURTW in Bauchi State have also lamented the presence of the checkpoint and Sabon Gidan Narabi, saying there is tendency for vehicles to develop fault like brake failure and will have no choice than to ram into parked vehicles at the checkpoint.

Most times, the soldiers stop between 50 to 100 vehicles on one side of the road at the check point for long period before allowing them to pass, Daily Trust learnt.

A traveller, Mohammed Jibril Sogiji, alleged that there were times that the road had to be closed due to accidents leaving hundreds of travellers stranded for hours, waiting for the road safety officials, staff of the fire service department and villagers to clear the roads.

When contacted on telephone, the 33 Artillery Brigade Army Public Relations Officer APRO Shadawanka Barracks Lieutenant Olukoya said he was not on ground to check and respond to the questions raised by our reporter. He said he was attending a course in Lagos.

"May be when I come back I will get the details you want and I will give you," he said.

Road safety officials said it is important for both Federal and Bauchi State Government to relocate the military check point at Sabon Garin Narabi or shift it to a safer place away from the foot of the hill, if it is absolutely desirable for the purpose of maintaining security.

One road safety official who said he was not authorised to speak for the commission advised that there should be enough road signs for everyone to see and obey. He also called on the soldiers to reduce the tendency of holding people for longer time at the check point to reduce accidents.

Between Bauchi to Jos there are about five military checkpoints in Zaranda village, Hawan Panshanu and the deadly Sabon Garin Narabi village, a border town between Bauchi and Plateau State. The other two are situated in the territory of Plateau State around Bauchi junction and another one at the point of descending from the Plateau, on the way to Bauchi.

These are in addition to several police and military vehicles patrolling the road and conducting stop and search operation along the ever busy Bauchi Jos road.

For the people the north eastern states of Bauchi, Borno, Taraba, Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe, the Bauchi-Jos federal highway remains the only gate to the central and southern states of the country, which is why the Narabi military check point has become a matter of concern to many, given the rate of deadly accidents at the point.

 



- Daily Trust