Two important Federal roads in Benue State have been seriously ravaged by heavy downpours, leaving motorists and passengers stranded and denying them access for days.
The two roads are the Gboko/Ugbema/Katsina-Ala and the Gboko/Lessel/Vandeikya roads linking Benue and Cross River State.
NewsQuest reports that while the Gboko/Ugbema/Katsina-Ala road is a major route to Northern Nigeria, the Gboko/Lessel/Vandeikya Federal road links passengers through Benue State to the Southern part of the country.
Eye witnesses told our correspondent that commuters were made to sleep by the roadside for days before they could pass a distance of less than a kilometre from this axis of the road.
A senior official of the department of hydrology at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Robert Umezulike who has inspected the Katsina-Ala section of the highway, said an overflow of the River Dura in Buruku local government caused the flood.
Aside from the flood that took over the road, the federal highway which connects Benue and Taraba State has been completely cut off at Abekwa settlement, close to River Dura.
The flooding jn the area has also submerged a number of houses, farms, and properties worth millions of naira.
Many sections of the Gboko/Lessel/Vandeikya Federal road are also presently submerged in mud, leaving trucks and commercial vehicles trapped for three days.
Tersoo Ashe 37 years old told NewsQuest in Mbadugu village-Lessel that the youth in the area have been creating alternative channels through residential houses as a temporary relief for many passengers.
“This road leads to our Governor’s country home in Vandeikya. This is what we experience every rainy season. Governor Hyacinth Alia should intervene to alleviate our pains,” Ashe lamented.
Most villagers in Waapera community in Lessel have taken advantage of the situation and are making brisk business as they now cook variety of local food to sell to stranded passengers.
The passengers are also made to pay a token at different barriers mounted by the youths within people’s homes.
