The Ogun State Police Command has advised youths to always channel their grievances to appropriate quarters instead of disrupting public peace via road blockage.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, the command’s spokesman, gave the caution on Friday.
Mr Oyeyemi noted that disrupting public peace, particularly by blocking the expressway, would only compound the problem of the motorists and residents in the state.
“This is never the solution to the incessant cases of accidents happening on the road. Rather, they should appeal to appropriate authorities in order to alleviate the plights of the people,’’ he said.
On Thursday, youths around the Iju area and its environs blocked the Ota-Idiroko expressway to protest multiple accidents on the Ota-Idiroko expressway.
No fewer than two lives were lost to accidents on that day, with 28 others sustaining injuries.
Another accident had occurred on September 7, killing five persons and injuring one other around Iju bridge on the Ota-Idiroko expressway.
Opeyemi Shotade, a motorist, described road blockage, especially around the Iju area of Ota-Idiroko expressway, as unfortunate, adding that he had once been held in the traffic for more than three hours.
Mr Shotade said that blocking the expressway by the youth was uncalled for, owing to the untold hardship their action was capable of inflicting on people going about their normal businesses.
He appealed to the federal and state governments to collaborate on the expansion and rehabilitation of Iju bridge and the Ota-Idiroko expressway.
The Zonal Commander, Ogun Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Adekunle Ajibade, said that the personnel and other sister-agencies were on ground to control the gridlocks caused by the angry youths in order to ease free flow of traffic on the expressway.
Mr Ajibade implored the motorists caught in the traffic to cooperate with the TRACE personnel and other-sister agencies to reduce their sufferings.
Oba Adeyemi Abdulkabir, the Olota of Ota in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun, who was present at the scene, where the road was blocked, appealed to the youth to always give peace a chance.
The royal father urged them not to take laws into their hands but learn to channel their grievances to the appropriate authorities.
(NAN)
