By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
With the Federal Government banning inter-state travels for over two months now as recommended by the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 Pandemic, road transportation in Nigeria has become a nightmare to travellers and transporters.
However, it has become a bazaar for Nigerian security agencies who are cashing out big time at the state boundaries. Prompt News investigations revealed that hapless passengers are bearing the brunt of transport fares hike on every Nigerian route as transporters have increased the fares astronomically since government banned inter-state transportation nationwide two and half months ago. Our correspondent can confirm that Nigerians have not stopped to commute across state boundaries since the ban on inter-state transportation took affect as people still travel from one state to another as long as they can afford the exorbitant fares charged by the transport owners who blamed the increase in fares on the exploitation by the security agencies on the roads. For example, our investigations revealed that passengers now pay the sum of N17, 000 for one way bus trip from Jabi Park, Abuja to South East states of Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi as against N7, 000 fare to South East by Sienna car. Also, passengers are charged between N18,000 to N20,000 transport farefrom Abuja to the South West states of Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun. Transport fares have equally jumped up in other routes across Nigeria as commuters pay higher fares now than they pay before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic two months ago. David James, a 32-year-old driver of Sienna car of a popular transport company that owns fleet of commuter buses and cars told Prompt News the fare increase is a direct consequence of the extortion by security agencies on the roads.
According to him, “we have to increase the transport fare in order to cover the huge amount of money we pay to the various security agencies on the roads.
“We (drivers) pay average of N3,000 to the security operatives at each state boundary to allow us to pass (cross) the road blocks because if you fail to pay, they will not allow you to go”. James who has been commuting from Owerri to Abuja and back since the ban was announced by government revealed that he spends an average of N12, 000 to grease the palms of the security agencies at the states boundaries in a trip.
