Kano residents and motorists of the Sabon Titi section along Panshekara road in Kumbotso Local Government Area lament frequent accidents and loss of business to poor condition of roads.
The road has become a major link to both Western Bypass leading from BUK ring road to Naibawa, down to Eastern Bypass leading to Maiduguri Zaria Road and Hotoro.
The Sabon Titi road also leads to Gaida, Panshekara, and Challawa which is a major road for trucks moving company goods.
Sabon Titi Road is described as a major road because of the concentration of businesses, industries, and the flourishing Sabon Titi market.
Musa Kamal, 35 year-old Truck driver conveying carbonated drinks, narrated to Stallion Times that the bad road had led to many accidents and loss of properties.
Center: Musa Kamal’s Truck conveying Coca-Cola. PC: Lukman Abdulmalik
He said: “In 2021, I remembered when my truck stumbled at the moment my tires fell inside a deep crater.
“I couldn’t control the truck, the carbonated drinks which I was conveying include; bottles of soft drinks got broken.
“We lost over N3 Million worth of products,” Kamal recalled.
Pedestrians Fear Crossing the Road
Not only motorists expressed their concerns, but pedestrians too lamented their nervousness crossing the major Sabon Titi Road.
Rabiu Salisu, 24 year-old told this reporter that whenever he is set to cross the road, he gets scared.
“Sometimes I feel like a vehicle will hit me from another angle or part of the road.
“The road has no directions, no roundabout, motorists drive towards any direction in an attempt to avoid big portholes on the road.
“It is the maneuvering of the vehicles that sometimes lead to accidents and casualties.
Another Sabon Titi road user, Hajiya Hannatu Usman, 58 year-old who was a victim of a ghastly accident narrated her ordeal in 2022 when a tricycle hit her off the road.
“It was on Sunday evening around 5 p.m., I was about to cross the road to reach the market.
“But the road was busy with trucks, tricycles, motorbikes, and others honking from different angles.
“I got confused due to the mixture of the vehicles, and from nowhere I was hit by a tricycle rider, I sustained a lot of injuries on my hands and legs.”
She appealed to the Kano State Government to help fix the road to save the lives and properties of road users.
Some Recorded Accidents
On August 6, 2020, Humangle reported that a teenage boy and a little girl had died in a fatal accident along Gaida Sabon Titi Panshekara Road, Kano state after a trailer ran into the tricycle they were riding.
The incident occurred in the late evening on Tuesday, during a traffic congestion on the road.
The report said the tricycle driver and three other passengers, including a woman and her two daughters, sustained various degrees of injury.
Another report by the Guardian on 09 March 2020, reported that a truck killed a family of five riding on a motorcycle along Sabon Titi road.
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The accident occurred at about 11:00 a.m. in the Sabon Titi area of the metropolis when a truck allegedly belonging to a cement company knocked down there man, his wife, and three children.
Our market products are not safe from dust – Sabon Titi Marketers
Sabon Titi Market is one of the populous flourishing markets for residents of Dorayi, Sabon Titi, Gaida, Samegu, Panshekara, and Kumbotso town.
The roadside market is known for selling grains, perishable goods, fish, meat, and other foodstuffs.
Despite the bad nature of the Sabon Titi Road, the market attracts businessmen and women.
However, Musa Yahaya, 43 year-old, the Sarkin Kasuwa of Sabon Titi Market lamented that their products are gradually becoming unsafe because of clouds of dust and sometimes splashes of dirty water by motorists.
Sabon Titi roadside Market. PC: Lukman Abdulmalik
“In some cases of motorbike riders maneuvering their way through the market, some of them will end up destroying or hitting people’s products.
“We stopped bike owners from riding through the market, while we advised buyers to always wash their fresh food items before consumption.
Dr. Yunusa Rahama, 41 year-old Dietician at Dala Orthopedic Hospital, warned that buying and eating untreated food items from the roadside is harmful to one’s health.
He said: “Eating or buying roadside foods, exposed to dirt, could attract germs, and bacteria.
“If not treated it could lead to stomach infections and abdominal pain are the instant problems that individuals might face after eating at roadside food stalls.
“Unhygienic food might lead to more serious problems like urinary tract infection, abdominal cavity infection, gastroenteritis, vomiting, and stomach cramps,” he added.
The Road Side Hustler
Umar Isah, 33 year-old popularly known as Babaliyo is a roadside hustler who fills potholes along the Sabon Titi Panshekara Road.
For the past 7 months, Babbaliyo has been helping vehicles to smoothly drive over potholes that he has filled with sand or stones.
Parts of the charity he gets are clothes, cash, food, and other gifts.
He described his “filling work” as a service to humanity to reduce accidents on the road.
“Every day by 9 a.m. I leave my house to the roadside to start filling potholes.
Kabiru Isah, the Sabon Titi potholes filler. PC: Lukman Abdulmalik
“I am not into doing this job for pleasure, but to protect the lives and properties of the road users.”
“I usually get money gifts like N50, N100 up to N1,000 from motorists in return for my service.
“The gifts encourage me to do more.
“I have young boys who also helped me to bring stones and sand. I also settle them at the end of the day.
“Some days I worked through without having a cash gift, that doesn’t deter me from doing selfless service.
He recounted that in 2022, the State Government started to repair the Sabon Titi Road, but after some months of scraping the dead soil, the contractors moved their equipment out of the site.
