Commuters travelling along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway on Sunday spent several hours on the road following a heavy gridlock caused by the surge in travellers ahead of the Eid el-Kabir celebration slated for Wednesday.

The situation, which began on Saturday, has been worsened by the ongoing rehabilitation of sections of the highway, leading to multiple diversions for motorists.

A commercial driver, Bello Musa, said the traffic congestion, which usually builds up around the Jere junction and Katari axis, has forced many drivers to spend several hours on the road.

He said many motorists now resort to taking the Jere Road after arriving at the junction leading to the town from the expressway before linking the Kafanchan-Kachia Road to connect Kaduna.

He added that some drivers familiar with the situation now avoid the highway entirely by taking the Bwari Road from Abuja and proceeding through the Mararaban-Guma Road to link the Kafanchan-Kachia Road that leads to Kaduna.

Although he described parts of the road around the SCC Junction near Bwari as being in poor condition, Musa said motorists were relieved that there had been no recent reports of insecurity along the route.

A member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) at Zuba Motor Park, Abuja, Abdullahi Adamu, said the gridlock had already led to a sharp increase in transportation fares.

He said drivers now charge as much as N20,000 for a trip from Abuja to Kano, against the previous fare of N12,000.

He added that despite the increase in fares, many drivers had parked their vehicles because of the long hours spent on the journey.

“Some of our drivers who left Zuba around 3pm on Saturday only arrived in Kano by 2am, whereas the journey normally takes about six hours,” he said.

Most of the drivers and NURTW officials who spoke with Daily Trust called for the immediate suspension of the road rehabilitation work and the reopening of diversion points pending the end of the Sallah celebrations.

“This was what the construction company handling the project did during the last Sallah celebration, and it helped to ease movement for motorists,” Adamu said.

He also expressed concern that bandits could take advantage of the situation to attack stranded commuters, noting that some travellers now spend the night in isolated areas due to the prolonged gridlock.

A traveller, Haruna Ibrahim, described his experience on the road as stressful, exhausting and frustrating.

He said a journey that ordinarily should not last more than three hours took him about six hours before he eventually arrived in Kaduna.

“I left Abuja at about 8am but only arrived in Kaduna a few minutes past 2pm. The journey was smooth until we got to Jere, where we spent more than three hours in traffic,” he said.

He added that although officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were present along the route, their efforts did little to ease the gridlock.

Meanwhile, FRSC has advised motorists plying the Abuja–Kaduna highway to maintain lane discipline, avoid one-way driving, obey traffic officials, and drive responsibly.

In a statement on X, FRSC said the corridor currently experiences heavy congestion due to increased Eid-el-Kabir traffic and ongoing road construction works.

“The most affected area remains the Nasarawa Azara axis between Katari and Jere towns, where traffic flow has slowed considerably, further worsened by dangerous overtaking and lane indiscipline by some motorists.

“To ease movement, motorists travelling between Kaduna and Abuja are advised to use the alternative route through Kaduna–Kachia–Maraban Kubacha–Jere–Bwari–Dutse Abuja, and vice versa,” the statement said. (Daily Trust)