It was not a good experience yesterday, for commuters along Iyana-Iba and Iyana-Ipaja area of Lagos, as they trekked long distances to their destinations, following the refusal of commercial bus drivers to ply the route.
The reason was an alleged murder of a commercial bus driver by men of Lagos State Environmental and Enforcement and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce), on Monday evening at Iyana Ipaja.
Another report alleged that the boycott was a protest against high ticket fees imposed on them by transport unions and extortions by task force members.
The protest grounded commercial buses and motorcycles operations in Iyana Ipaja, Idimu, Igando, Iyana Iba, and Ikotun, while hoodlums took advantage of the situation to harass stranded passers-by.
Displaying placards, the protesting bus drivers, lamented that the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), had made their operations burdensome.
They alleged that officials of transport union officials, under the guise of collecting money for daily tickets, subject drivers and conductors to inhumane treatment.
Some drivers also complained of daily extortion, through exorbitant ticket fees, which they said, was above the amount they make.
According to them, when they refused to pay, they use operatives of the Lagos State Task Force to harass them.
Meanwhile, Chairman, Lagos State Taskforce, CSP Shola Jejeloye, in a statement on Tuesday said, the news that the task force members kill a driver and a conductor was fake.
Jejeloye explained that what led to the protest by commercial drivers in LASU/Iyana Iba was an attempt to escape arrest by a danfo driver, who on sighting the operatives of the agency in Iyana – Ipaja on Monday, sped off and hit a broken-down bus.
In the statement signed by the Head, Public Affairs Unit, Femi Moliki, he stated that he has been meeting with key stakeholders in the axis to ensure that commuters are not made to go through harrowing experiences as a result of the protest.
