Police Checkpoint Causes Traffic Snarls At Airport

A police checkpoint along the road, leading to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, in Lagos has been causing traffic snarls since Thursday, P.M.NEWS has observed.

A five-minute drive between the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Terminal 1 is now covered in about an hour.

Armed policemen at the checkpoint were seen opening cars and searching drivers. The search led to slow vehicular movement in the area.

“I spent almost two hours here yesterday,” a passenger in a commuter bus said.

Many people were seen trekking to the airport with many of them arriving the airport long before the commuter buses did.

Security is usually beefed up across the country during Yuletide but frequent bombings across northern Nigerian states and an explosion in Lagos on 26 December has led to more police presence on the roads.

—Simon Ateba