Soldiers have returned to the checkpoint mounted at the Orimerunmu, Ogun State end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, thereby subjecting motorists to hardship.
PUNCH Metro had, in a series of stories published in March, highlighted the travails of motorists and residents plying the expressway to navigate their destinations within and beyond the Orimerunmu community, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, who complained about being subjected to traumatising tortures by soldiers who indiscriminately mount roadblock on the expressway to extort money from them daily.
PUNCH Metro reported then that the soldiers, under the guise of conducting routine security checks, usually used barricades to create a checkpoint on the expressway at night.
The situation usually caused a backlog of traffic induced by the slow-paced movement of vehicles navigating the narrow opening created by the soldiers on the expressway.
Motorists and residents complained that hoodlums had been taking advantage of the situation to rob them of their valuables while stuck in the gridlock.
Following the reports, the soldiers dismantled the roadblock while motorists heaved sighs of relief.
Their relief was however short-lived as the soldiers were said to have returned to the roadblock on Monday evening.
A motorist, who did not want his name in print for fear of victimisation, told our reporter that when the soldiers returned on Monday night, they mounted roadblocks on both lanes of the expressway at the Orimerunmu end.
The source added that they however restricted their operation on Tuesday night to the inward Lagos lane of the road.
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