For the second time in quick succession, another articulated truck ferrying a container has rammed into the irregular and poorly constructed roundabout at Utu Etim Ekpo, headquarters of Etim Ekpo local government area of Akwa Ibom State, critically injuring the driver and other occupants.
Through no life was lost, the accident which occurred at about 8pm Friday night, happened barely two weeks after a truck laden with flour, crashed at the same spot, killing three persons with several makeshift shops destroyed near the Etim Ekpo motor park.
Therefore, with no remedial intervention as assured by the council chairman, Mr Gideon Uwah, angry residents, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered, took to the streets and other social media platforms to protest over what they described as “negligence and insensitivity to the sacred nature of human lives by government and other concerned authorities.”
According to a motorcyclist, Ubong Essien, from the neighbouring Etuk Uruk Eshiet, “the truck descended the slope from Utu Ikot Imonte axis of the Iwukem – Erin Ekpo – Afahaobong – Abak road on Friday night, but suddenly rammed over the roundabout and crashed, perhaps due to break failure.
“I have to thank God that it happened during the night when the road was already empty with people haven retired to their homes, otherwise several casualties would have been recorded like the previous accidents which resulted in the death of over 70 persons since CETRACO Construction Company finished the road during the era of former Governor Godswill Akpabio (2007 – 2015.”
“The long truck carrying container just climbed the centre of the roundabout and crashed into the council secretariat fence close to the Police Station Road,” another eyewitness recounted.
One of the protesters, who declined to give his identity, warned of more drastic consequences, noting that “it’s only when the lives of some prominent Etim Ekpo indigenes are lost to the obvious death-trap that people will stop playing politics with the road.”
Appealing for the removal of the ill-fated roundabout, he said, “I want to use this medium to appeal to those in authority to make sure we do away with that roundabout.
“Since the initiation of that roundabout, we can’t count people who are in the graveyards or those that are permanently incapacitated with critical injuries because of that roundabout. I just believe we don’t lose a prominent person in Etim Ekpo before action is taken.
“Whoever designed and constructed that roundabout is the number one enemy of Etim Ekpo because I have never seen such a thing called roundabout anywhere in this country.”
Joining the call for the removal of what he described as a “Bloody Roundabout”, because of so much blood spilled on the spot by incessant accidents, Engr Ekong Bassey blamed the problem on “poor road alignment to avoid paying too much compensation to owners of buildings and property on the right of way.”
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