Commuters face hard times in Badagry as commercial drivers stay off roads

Some commuters in Badagry and its environs were on Monday morning stranded as commercial bus drivers embarked on an indefinite strike, alleging arbitrary collection of levies from them by officials of Lagos State Motor Parks and Garage Management.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who monitored bus stops in Badagry reports that commuters were seen waiting for buses to convey them to different destinations without success.

NAN reports that at the popular roundabout in Badagry, many residents going to Ojo and other places returned due to lack of commercial buses to convey them.

Mr Idowu Jimoh, a staff of Public Complaints Commission (PCC) in Badagry told NAN that he had waited for close to two hours at the roundabout for a bus to convey him to his office in Lagos.

He appealed to the Lagos State government and aggrieved transporters to resolve the issue amicably for peace to reign.

According to Jimoh, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, so it is the masses that are suffering for what they don’t know.

NAN reports that the situation was the same at Mowo bus stop, MTN bus stop, Ibile bus stop, Magbon bus stop, Churchgate and Agbara.

At Mowo bus stop, tricycles, known as Keke Maruwa, and commercial motorcycles were on ground to convey stranded commuters to their various destinations.

Mrs Elizabeth Ojo, a foodseller who was going to the market, said the tricycle drivers had increased the transport fare by 50 per cent due to the strike by the commercial bus drivers.

Ojo urged the government to meet the people and resolve it before it went out of hand.

Meanwhile, Mr Taofeek Hassan, the Assistant Secretary, Joint Drivers’ Welfare Association of Nigeria, told NAN in a telephone interview that commercial bus drivers would not go back to work unless government intervened.

According to him, the bus drivers left the road because of extortion of their people by the park managers.