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| Vice-President Kashim Shettima in August 2023. File photograph. Opeyemi Adelani / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
Motorists spent hours in traffic and commuters walked long distances in Benin City on Thursday as Vice-President Kashim Shettima’s arrival for an All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally disrupted movement across the Edo State capital.
Commercial drivers sought alternative routes to avoid the congestion, but traffic also built up on those roads, leaving passengers with limited options for reaching their destinations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that blocked access roads around the Oba’s Palace and Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, the rally venue, contributed to the disruption. The congestion affected Airport Road, Plymouth Road, Reservation Road, Exotic Road and Ekenwan Road, alongside several streets within the Government Reservation Area.
Police officers, military personnel and Federal Road Safety Corps officials took positions at major junctions to direct vehicles and maintain order as supporters gathered along the vice-president’s route.
According to Daily Trust, Shettima reached Benin Airport at about noon. His entourage included governors, ministers, senators, members of the House of Representatives and other APC leaders attending the campaign event ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Supporters assembled at both the airport and the palace to receive the delegation, despite the difficulties commuters faced elsewhere in the city.
Along Airport Road, hundreds of motorcycle riders lined the route in matching tops bearing photographs of President Bola Tinubu and Shettima. Women’s organisations and cultural groups also gathered at the reception points, singing and dancing as they awaited the vice-president.
NAN’s correspondent observed women in different outfits and groups of young women wearing matching T-shirts among those taking part in the welcome.
The agency’s initial account captured the traffic disruption before proceedings began at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, while supporters continued arriving from across the state.