UNIZIK PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TAKEN OVER BY SELLERS AND BEGGARS: AN UPCOMING DEATH AND ROBBERY TRAP

                                                        Photo by Joshua Bos on Unsplash

The pedestrian bridge at the UNIZIK temporary site junction popularly called tempsite in Awka has been taken over by food and wares sellers, hawkers and beggars making the place highly littered with dustbin and wastes that it is beginning to erode the foundation of the bridge resulting in numerous mini potholes that are now waterlogged. 

The stench oozing out of this pedestrian bridge is so bad that one can hardly breathe-in properly. 

Recall that this bridge construction was initiated by Senator Chris Ngige’s tenure but however was constructed by the then Governor Peter Obi who is currently the presidential candidate of Labour Party for the upcoming elections in 2023. This bridge was built to reduce the rate of accidents around that junction along the Enugu-Onitsha expressway. This axis is populated by mostly students of the federal University Awka commonly called Nnamdi Azikiwe Universtity Awka, UNIZIK and with this mammoth population came the need for sprouting markets and mini food hubs here and there. How these ventures extended to the staircase, underneath the bridge and even on the bridge itself just above the road is baffling. 

These traders and beggars have almost closed the entrance to the bridge such that pedestrians will have to struggle for this path not just with the sellers and beggars themselves but also the displayed wares of these people littered over the floor and on the walls of the bridge as well. It is like a place of keen competition between buyers and sellers now – a budding booming and major market to say the least. 

Wares displayed there include but not limited to food, soft drinks, hot sachet drinks, clothes, foot wears etc. I won’t be shocked if Kilimanjaro’s Restaurants open a branch on that bridge.

Cases of robbery are now a norm along that axis and I can’t say that the nuisance around that pedestrian bridge isn’t one of the causes. However, my utmost concern happens to be the fact that the UNIZIK pedestrian bridge is now overburdened and currently dilapidating as well. The waterlogged potholes and loosening blocks are a signal to impending doom catastrophe. If that bridge should collapse the casualty will be a record and blood will overflow. 

Less I mentioned, around that axis below the pedestrian bridge are transport companies with their vehicles littered to the left and right and even unto the side roads. Infact, I won’t be surprised that the government might be making millions from that burgeoning economical nuisance around that axis

Speaking with a passerby, Mrs. Ngozi lamented about the challenges she experiences on the daily bases while crossing the bridge. She as well narrated an incident of robbery which she escaped that occurred on that bridge a certain night. She pled with the government to find an immediate solution to the whole menace around that bridge. In her words, 

“It is life threatening using this bridge everyday”.

Moreover, according to Authority, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, Venerable Amaechi Okwuisa recalled the dangers that faced pedestrians on that bridge and he stated that the agency has been working tirelessly to put a stop to the business activities going on at that pedestrian bridge.

When the traders on the bridge were interviewed they claimed that theyare willing to leave the bridge if the government will assist them find affordable alternatives and where to display their wares so they can maintain there family upkeep in these trying times.

Mon Diaries blog is pleading with the current state government under the auspices of Governor Chukwuma Soludo to please pay attention to that pedestrian bridge and find ways to reinforce that structure and as well as set up task force to clear the trading on and around that bridge. To before warn is to before harm.