Tension in Abia as female truck driver blocks highway to protest harassment by touts

 Motorists and commuters plying the Umuahia -Ikot Ekpene federal highway, were Wednesday, subjected to agony as a female truck driver conveying cement from Calabar, blocked the narrow deplorable road with her truck.

The incident happened about 10 meters after the second gate of the Umuahia Building Material Market, Isieke, towards Umudike.

For several hours, traffic movement was completely halted and many vehicles leaving and entering Umuahia capital city via the road got trapped in the traffic.

Some drivers familiar with the route were observed trying to meander through some local routes to connect to their destinations, especially those en route Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

The driver of the truck was not at the scene but her husband had been contacted.

Shortly after Vanguard Correspondent came to the scene around 11 am, a team of security personnel comprising soldiers and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDS, arrived at the scene to help restore order.

The security operatives were pleading with the driver’s husband to produce his wife so she could remove the truck from the road to enable other road users have an easy passage.

He was seen making frantic efforts to contact the wife on the phone but said her number was not connecting.

Some sympathizers of the truck driver were overheard raining abuses on the touts.

According to them, the driver was flagged down and held at the spot since Tuesday night, until Wednesday morning when she, ostensibly out of anger, decided to obstruct the highway to register her grievances.

A man who introduced himself as a traffic officer said one of the touts had been arrested and taken to the police station.

When contacted, Commissioner for Information, Abia State, Prince Okey Kanu, said the Head of the Joint Taskforce had been alerted and had deployed his men to the venue to find out what actually happened.

He said that the touts should be arrested for prosecution, and the truck removed so that innocent commuters would not be punished unnecessarily.

The Commissioner re-stated the commitment of the State Government to rid Abia roads of touts and illegal revenue collectors.