Christmas: Passengers decry hike in transport fare

Some passengers travelling from Osogbo to Lagos, on Monday, decried the hike in transport fare, as it skyrocketed against what it used to be before the festive season.
While transportation fare for most destinations from Osogbo remained relatively the same, the fare to Lagos increased by 30 per cent to 35 per cent.
At Aregbesola Area Motor Park and Old Governor’s Office Area Motor Park, both in Osogbo, transporters were discovered to be charging N2, 000 and N2,200 for buses and N2, 500 for cars as against N1,500 and N2,000 respectively charged before.
A commercial bus driver, Mr Adela Seyi, said that it was a norm for transportation fares to go up during the festive period, adding that the fares always come back to normal after the celebrations.
Seyi explained that transporters now charge N2,000 to Lagos on 18 passenger buses, N2,200 for 14 passenger buses and N2,500 for cars to Lagos.
He explained that some passengers might want to break the journey by going to Ibadan first and boarding another bus later to Lagos from there to cut cost.
”But, that is a counter-productive move, as transporters in Ibadan charge N2,000 to Lagos too,” he said.
Some travellers lurking around these motor parks, however, decried the increase in the prices of the transport fare, saying that it would affect their budgets and other plans for Christmas .
Mr Toye Abraham, a traveller, said that he had planned to get some food items to take along on his trip to Lagos, but due to the increase in the transport fare, he could not do this, because transport fare would have gone up in Lagos too.
Miss Precious Adebayo, an undergraduate, said the increase in fare means she had to call her parents to send her additional money, as her destination in Lagos is Ikorodu, and the money she had with her would not take her home.
Others, who could not afford the fare were seen leaving the parks and moving along the Gbongan-Osogbo expressway, hoping to get cheaper means of transportation, known in local parlance as ‘Soole’.