Truck owners, commuters decry losses on deplorable Calabar-Uyo highway

Truck owners and commuters are sounding the alarm over increasing losses on the deteriorating Calabar-Uyo federal highway, which has become a site of accidents, vehicle damage, and lost goods. In an interview in Calabar on Tuesday, frustrated truck operators voiced their concerns about the road’s condition, which has been declining for years and serves as a crucial link between Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and the Southeast.

They lamented the slow progress of the road’s rehabilitation, which has been ongoing for over a decade without significant improvement. Three months ago, Minister of Works David Umahi visited the site and assured that contractors would return to expedite repairs, but those promises have yet to materialize, leaving the road in its current state of disrepair.

Samson Etete, one of the affected truck owners, shared a distressing incident where his truck, loaded with bags of rice and bottles of groundnut oil, fell into a ditch. “This is yet another heartbreaking loss. My insurance had just expired days before the accident, and now I’ve lost everything,” he recounted. He added that another of his trucks had also fallen on the same road near the Odukpani area a few months ago, though that incident resulted in lesser losses.

Etete explained that local residents took his goods following the accident, leaving him without any means to recover his losses. “How can I recover from this? The terrible road conditions and heavy traffic are compounding the problem,” he stated.

Truck driver Edet Uforo described the highway as a nightmare for anyone driving on it. “Every day, at least ten heavy-duty trucks and other vehicles break down or plunge into ditches along this road,” Uforo noted, highlighting the road’s dangerously slippery nature.

Frequent commuter Eno Johnson, who uses the route for business, added that overturned trucks often block the roadway, leading to severe traffic congestion. “Sometimes, we spend the night stranded on the road, exposed to danger due to these ongoing accidents,” Johnson said.

As the dire condition of the Calabar-Uyo highway continues to disrupt lives and businesses, urgent pleas for intervention remain largely unaddressed.