Commuters, transporters stranded in forest as bridge collapses
The Adamawa-Borno border link bridge in the Madagali Local Government Area has finally collapsed, cutting off the two states last Friday night.
Arewa PUNCH reports that the Adamawa-Borno border link bridge finally collapsed exactly one month and 15 days after our correspondent warned and reported that except the Federal Government takes urgent step, the disaster was waiting to happen.
Typical of the government’s slow or nonresponse to issues bordering on infrastructural maintenace, and approach to good governance, especially as it concerns the masses, When Arewa PUNCH visited the bridge location on Sunday, four Dangote cement trucks hich were heavily laden with bags of cement and other passenger vehicles were trapped at the Adamawa-Borno end of the border bridge.
The Managing Director of North East Development Commission, Alhaji Mohammed Alkali, who was at the sight of the collapsed bridge to access the sad situation, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate reconstruction of the bridge.
He said the commission was making arrangements to ensure that the bridge did not collapse before dry season for reconstruction work to start, but regretted that the incident occurred before the commission could commence rescue work on the bridge.
“It is unfortunate that this bridge collapsed just when the commission is making arrangements to see that the Adamawa and Borno people are not cut off from doing their businesses, but unfortunately, before our plans could materialise this incident happened,” he said.
Alkali added, “My visit here is due to the urgent nature of the incident. This bridge is the lifeline of the two states. You can now see trucks of cement coming from Borno State into Adamawa State and vehicles from Adamawa taking food stuffs to Borno state are all trapped. This has huge commercial implications on the people of the two states and beyond.”
Some passengers who spoke with our correspondent lamented that they could not continue the trip to their destinations due to the collapsed state of the bridge.
A passenger traveling from Borno State to Adamawa State, who identified himself as Abdul Buba, a staff of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital disclosed that for two days after the bridge collapsed, he had been sleeping inside the commercial vehicle he boarded to Yola.
Another passenger, Mariam Sabo, from Taraba State going to Maiduguri for medical care, said that her condition was getting worse, and she did not know how she could cross the river.
“My life is now in danger. My situation is getting bad and uptill now, I don’t know where the miracle to save me will come from, “ she said.
Some of the drivers who volunteered to speak with Arewa PUNCH blamed the collapsed bridge on poor government attitude towards public infrastructures.
A driver who simply said his name is John Zira, stated that the bridge was already in the bad condition for over ten years, but the two states and Federal Government failed to act at the appropriate time.
“We have a bad maintenance culture in Nigeria, once the government builds a road or bridge there is no yearly budget for its maintenance, because those in leadership fly in the air to where ever they are going,” he noted.
Zira added, “We the poor people are sleeping in this forest at the mercy of Boko Haram, but the rich will fly from Adamawa to Borno and Borno to Adamawa, so who cares about the conditions of our roads”.
Arewa PUNCH observed that two other bridges in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State may soon collapse any time from now as well, especially following the heavy downpour that have occurred in the areas where the two bridges are located.
