Kaduna govt orders removal of trucks, tankers parked on Kaduna-Zaria highway

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has given a 24-hour quit notice to drivers of trailers and tankers parked on the Maraban Jos axis of the Kaduna-Zaria Expressway to vacate the road with immediate effect.

This followed an ultimatum issued to the drivers to start parking their vehicles at the newly completed ultra-modern trailer park at Maraban Jos, as part of the government’s efforts to decongest the road and make it accident-free.

Governor El-Rufai, who was at the trailer park on Monday to see the level of compliance with the directive, decried that many lives had been lost on that section of the highway due to indiscriminate parking of long vehicles.

While some drivers obeyed the governor’s directive to move to the new trailer park, others were not willing to move as they were caught by Governor Elrufai with their vehicles still parked along the highway.

Infuriated by their action, the governor directed the erring drivers to vacate the road with their vehicles or get prepared to face the consequences.

The Kaduna-Zaria highway is one of the busiest roads in the northern part of the country and serves as the gateway to the seven states in the north-west zone from Abuja, the nation’s capital.

It has, however, witnessed several motor accidents, particularly at the Maraban Jos axis of the highway due to incessant traffic congestion as a result of the indiscriminate parking of trailers and tankers.

This prompted the state government to build a modern trailer park for all long-duty vehicles, for easy flow of traffic on the highway.

It also directed the traffic management and security agencies to ensure no vehicle was allowed to park on the highway for easy flow of traffic and reduction of accidents on the road.

The Maraban Jos trailer park, which has a space of about 71,000 square metres of parking area alone, also has provision for restaurants and hotels among other facilities to make users comfortable.

Indiscriminate parking on the highway is a violation of the Federal Highway Act.