A Human Rights activist and President, Consumer Rights Advancement Organisation (CRADO) Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, has urged the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to direct the Vice Chairman of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management Committee Musiliu Akinsanya, to reduce the levies charged all commercial bus operators in the state.
Ogunbanjo who spoke with SUNRISE NEWS on Wednesday, said he had visited six motor parks between Ogba, Agege and Ikeja on Wednesday just to feel the pulse of the drivers and to see whether they are complying with the governor’s directive to slash their fares by 25 percent beginning from Wednesday August 2, 2023.
He said sadly, no driver including drivers of commercial tricycles were willing to bring down their fares, thereby directly flouting the directive of the governor.
According to him, the drivers said they cannot bring down their fares because they are still paying the same levies to the Committee daily. He said the operators insisted that if the governor want the commercial operators to slash their prices, Oluomo should be ordered to bring down the committee’s rates.
SUNRISE NEWS reports that many of the drivers are alleging that just as the Federal Government was removing the fuel subsidy, the Oluomo led committee was also increasing the levies collectable from commercial operators statewide.
In Surulere and Masha areas of the state, SUNRISE NEWS gathered, tricycle operators pay not fewer than N7000 daily to bus boys, popularly called Agberos at the parks and garages before loading everyday.
Kolawole Moses, one of the tricycle operator at Iyana Ipaja, in Alimoso Local Government said he collects N5000 tickets everyday and this is besides the regular tokens collected at the park by theAgberos every time he carried a full load of passengers. “The Agberos collects the sum of one passenger anytime we had the opportunity to load at any park, when a passenger disembark, we also pay, and we are also under obligation to dash them money at regular intervals. The Police and all other agencies on the road are expecting something from us. It is tasking to operate commercial buses in Lagos, you are always at the mercy of the Agberos at every turn,”Ogunbanjo said.