Lagos – Commuters in Lagos State and some parts of the country in the last two weeks have switched their mode of transportation to trekking, preferring to trek places within reasonable distances or halfway to distant locations to cut down on transport fares.
Many have no choices but to align with this mode of transportation owing to the recent fuel scarcity and subsequent increase in the cost of buying PMS per litre which has jumped from an average of N560 per litre, some few weeks back to an average of N1000 per litre, compelling commercial bus operators to quadruple the cost of an average trip.
Most of the commuters blame the incessant increase in fare on the high cost of fuel that has increased and worst still by the warlike process in getting or buying fuel from the filling stations.
The fare increase, which cuts across all parts of the States, started about three weeks ago when the queues resurfaced at filling stations, indicating scarceness in the fuel supply chain. For instance, a journey from Mile 2 to Oshodi which used to cost N400 is now about N800 and could get as high as N1000, forcing commuters to trek some distances with the aim to cut down the fares.
Advertisement
A middle aged man who spoke to Daily Independent on anonymity, said he spends an average of about N2100 from AbuleEgba to Ikorodu, a journey that usually cost less than N1000 before the current fuel crisis
He wondered why the Government despisedthe citizens this much to subject them to such harrowing experience on the guise that there is no fuel, which is being mined from the country.
To this end he said he treks several kilometres and uses the little amount he could save to buy things for his family at home.
“These days, with the cost of food gone overboard, taking over 80% of his income, it is foolhardy for me to spend so much on transportation” he said.
Also a young man, Mr. Ayo Bamise, who works in a factory in one of the companies in Oba Akran described the transportation fares in the state since the fuel crisis as “terrible and unimaginable.”
