LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Several commercial bus drivers using the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway have staged a protest against alleged extortion by “Agbero” touts at the toll-gate area.
The Protest which took place earlier today, left some commuters, stranded as drivers were uninterested in conveying passenger.
News Agency Of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, commuters lamented the inconvenience faced as the protest inflicted unnecessary pains and sufferings on the masses.
The protest disrupted economic activities around the Toll-Gate area of the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway as passengers were seen trekking long distances to their destinations.
Some of the protesters were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions, some of which read: “We are tired of Agberos extortion”, “We can’t continue working for Agberos”, among others.
Bimbo Apata, who works at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, said he had spent over two hours at the bus-stop waiting to get a bus, but all proved abortive.
Mr Apata said that he had no choice but to resort to trekking to get to the office on time.
“The suffering was too much. People had to trek several distances because they could not get buses to their various destinations,” he said.
Mr Apata urged to the Lagos State government to quickly address the demonstration before it results to violence and loss of innocent lives.
Another passenger, Yemi Ajegunle, described the commercial bus drivers protest as “uncalled for”.
According to her, it is the masses that will feel the impact and not those in the authority.
Mrs Ajegunle, a trader at Oshodi Market, who went to Abeokuta to buy goods that she sells, said on getting to the Toll-Gate area, the protesters asked the driver of the bus she boarded to drop all passengers.
“We were all stranded because we couldn’t go back and move forward. “Many of us, especially those without any heavy luggage, started trekking to our destinations,” she said.
Mrs Ajegunle called on the relevant authorities to make efforts to resolve the crisis so that peace can be restored in the vicinity.
Sule Sanni, one of the protesters, said that the commercial bus drivers in Lagos were protesting against activities of the officials of the Lagos State Park and Gardens, headed by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo.
Mr Sanni said that they would continue with the protest until the government addressed the issue of ‘agberos’ extortion by touts and alleged maltreatment of its members.
He explained that they paid between N10,000 to N15,000 every day to the union, adding that the development was indirectly affecting them negatively.
“Our profit margin is being eroded on a daily basis as they collect money from us at all the bus-stops,” he said.
