The Second Niger Bridge was on Thursday, 15th December, 2022, temporarily opened to vehicular movements.
At exactly 9:50am today, the bridge opened to vehicular use, contrary to earlier decision to open the bridge by early Thursday.
Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, who had earlier during the week, disclosed the time for the opening of the bridge, had said it is a temporary opening.
According to him, the opening is to serve the purpose for which it was built, which is to reduce the suffering of motorists due to the belabouring of the existing bridge.
He counselled road users plying the bridge to drive safely and responsibly in order not to defeat the purpose of constructing the project.
The Minister, who spoke in the stead of President Muhammadu Buhari said the purpose of doing the bridge was to save life and alleviate poverty occasioned by waste of man-hours resulting from gridlock on the old first second bridge.
He said it would be counterproductive if the users would become reckless and attract unnecessary mishaps upon themselves.
“The maximum speed limit on Nigerian roads is 100km per hour. Don’t drive 101km per hour. The president will be happy to see users drive safely and responsibly while using this road especially during this Christmas and new year seasons. The president wishes you a merry Christmas and happy new year,” he said.
He said that the road would be officially open by 12.01am on Thursday, December 15 and January 15, 2023.
The president approved that since the bridge is finished that we should create an access road so that during Christmas you can begin to experience what it would feel like plying the bridge.
“Let me be clear again; we haven’t finished construction work on the bridge but we would open it for people to use to relive the pressure from the one bridge.
He said; “On the 15th January, 2023, we would reverse that movement for those coming from the east to the west.”
Fashola said part of money used in constructing the bridge was looted funds recovered mostly from the United States of America.
Meanwhile, the first users of the bridge have expressed appreciation to President Buhari for fulfilling his promise to complete the construction of the bridge, which had been delayed for years.
They said the opening will help reduce the hours lost on traffic trying to navigate the very busy bridgehead and upper iweka, Onitsha.
The motorists called for completion of the remaining works on the bridge, to ensure that the people use it on a permanent basis.
