Why bus drivers insist to boycott roads for 7-day

*Complain Agberos now reign on Lagos roads, lead police, LASTMA in extortion

•Lament breakdown of law and order on Lagos roads, want govt to stop menace

IRKED by the excesses of agberos, commercial bus drivers under the aegis of Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria, have declared to stay off the road on Monday, October 31,2022, for 7 days to drive home their grievances.

The association in a statement  signed by its National Leader, Chairman, Secretary and Assistant Secretary; Akintade Abiodun, Opeyemi Suleiman, Ajimatanarareje Feyisayo, and Taofeek Hassan respectively, said the protest would last for seven  days.

The association lamented that on a daily basis, its  members  lose half of their  income to the motor park boys, adding that they paid  exorbitant charges in the garages and at every bus stop where they either  drop off or  pick up passengers.

The statement read: “We  have been sentenced to the extortion and violent harassment by the state transport agencies – Lagos State motor parks and garages management and Lagos State caretaker committee.

“We pay morning, afternoon and night. Some routes have 25 bus stops which also serve as illegal tax collection avenues."

The agberos are seen all over garages and bus-stops  in Lagos  State, some with raspy voices barking at random, at helpless bus conductors, in a bid to forcefully collect tolls from them.

Most times, bus conductors who tried to put up resistance or delay payment of tolls were  beaten mercilessly and  rough handled like common criminals ,  without help from  drivers who also  got a fair share of  the beating if they intervened. 

At other times,  they would  forcefully collect   bus conductors’ pair of slippers   or  remove any detachable item from  commercial buses if they were unable to collect the  tolls.

At garages , for each bus loaded, the fare of three passengers goes to these  agberos , with helpless commuters left to bear the brunt of  the resultant hike in fares.

Tricycle operators are not exempted from  these  extortionists . Until the ban of commercial motorcycles from some local government areas  in Lagos ,  riders also had  a period of haggling with  these extortionists.

They are called agberos, a local slang for motor park touts who hide under the toga of transport unions.

Their activities have since  been extended to communities in Lagos where they forcefully collect money from  truck drivers conveying   building materials or other materials to construction sites or warehouses. Even trucks without goods are also extorted for being on the road.

In the year 2020, they introduced another means of forceful collection of tolls, by clustering round fairly used cars popularly called Tokunbo,while leaving either the  Apapa ,  Tin-Can ports or adjourning port terminals on the Apapa-Oshodi Express way, Lagos. 

They are usually seen in a congregation of 20   or more, wielding metal rods, as they wait patiently  for preys.

 On sighting a Tokunbo car approaching, they would scurry out,

and like a sore swarmed by  teeming  houseflies , they would  cluster round the vehicle, forcefully demanding for tolls and at the same,   removing  some  vehicles parts and even goods of  defiant drivers. 

They are seen at Coconut ,  Berger yard, Berger Suya, Mile-Two, Janakande, and second Rain bow bus-stops along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway as well as  on the Orile bridge and inside streets in Olodi Apapa and Ajegunle, where drivers use as alternative routes to avoid these  agberos on the Apapa/Oshodi expressway.

Market

Their unwholesome demands are also prevalent in all markets in Lagos State.

Sometimes, they create make-shift offices within  markets where they collect tolls from vehicles conveying goods to customers’ destinations.  

They impose levies at will on traders,  especially those without shops. They create space for  this category of traders outside the market and  by the road side ,where  they  display their wares , claiming they remit part of the levies  to governments at both the   state and local levels.

Hawkers,  load carriers and wheel barrow pushers in markets are not left out in the extortion practice. Anyone of them  who failed to pay would have his or her goods seized pending when they did the needful. 

Sadly, some traders with perishable goods  had them destroyed , by the time they returned  to pay the levy .

Dissatisfied with the terrain they cover, these agberos, again,  extended their brazen disregard to customers who go to market to buy goods 

They arrogantly accost customers  leaving the  market with    conspicuous goods ,  demanding    between N100 and N700 depending on the size of the goods.

This appalling conducts have  been  going on for  years in popular markets in Lagos State, without being addressed by Government.

Sadly, some of the leaders of markets who ought to have taken the plights of their members to the appropriate authorities for redress, are enmeshed in the extortion as findings revealed that they also share from the largess realised by agberos.

Price of resistance 

Despite the Lagos State Government’s ban  of activities of members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW  and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria , RTEAN, some agberos were discovered to still be operating under the umbrellas of the banned unions. 

One of the markets where their illegal activities had been going on, was the Alaba International Market in Ojo Local Government of Lagos State.

An attempt by members of the market’s  Task Force to stop further harassment by these agberos led to a violent clash that left three traders: Onyeku Nwatu, Innocent Chinedu and  Sunday Nwora, dead and 28 others injured, Tuesday last week. 

The weapons wielding agberos stormed the market to force their way into regaining  their space .

Lamenting the ordeal of traders in the hands of agberos for years, Chairman of the  Alaba International Amalgamated Traders Association Council of Sectional Heads, Chief Amajuoyi Camilus, disclosed that  traders were leaving the market in droves owing to  excess extortion by members of RTEAN and Park Administration .

He revealed that  between Volkswagen bus-stop and Alaba International, there were about 10 toll points where  motorists and customers were extorted  daily.

He said the  extortionists forcefully  collected between N700 and N100 thousand  from vehicles before they would be allowed to convey  goods to various areas . Failure to part with the amount usually resulted in brutality on the part of  extortionists.

Breakdown 

“From Badagry to mile 2, we pay N3500 and N5000, apart from the 25 illegal tolling/ticketing by motor park hoodlums who collect N200 to N300 per bus.

“From Seme  park, they  collect N7100 in the morning before loading our buses yet we are subjected to illegal collection on the highway.

“On Federal Mass & Coaster, we pay over N12,000 on each trip from Oko -Afo to CMS or to Oyingbo which includes loading charges and illegal payments at several bus stops till we get to our destination.

“From Ogijo to Ikorodu, we pay over N5500 per day. Garage Ticket – N850, chairman ticket – N1700, king’s levy N200, Ita Oluwo N500, Odo Gunyon – N1200, Ile epo oba – N200. We also pay N900 for passing by, whether you pick up passenger or not.

“At Ikorodu roundabout, we pay N1000 in the morning and afternoon and we pay N500 naira in the evening which makes is N2500.

“At Benson bus stop, we pay N900 for a whole day loading at 300 naira each for morning, afternoon and evening.

“At Agric bus stop, we pay N200 to eight motor park thugs, it is called welcome to Agric tax. When we stop to load for passengers at agric bus stop, we pay extra N300 which isn’t part of the N1600 welcome to agric tax.

“When we get to Aunty Kenny Bus Stop, we pay N200 before buying Lagos State ticket for N500.

“At ogolonto bus stop we pay N100, at Mile 12 bust stop, we pay N500 for plying the expressway and N1000 for plying service lane (for buses en route Yaba Oyingbo) .

“From mile 12 to Ojuelegba, buses pay N1500, while red coaster buses pays 2000 naira respectively.

“Red buses from Ikorodu to Oshodi pay N5000 to motor park boys in the morning and afternoon.

“At Ketu bus stop, we pay N600 to N1000 depending on the size of the bus, for just dropping off passengers or picking up any single one.

“For buses plying Yaba to Ikeja, we pay N200 at Jibowu bus stop, total bus stop-  N100, fadeyi N100, Onipanu N200, Elediye N200 naira, Palmgrove N200, Anthony N100, and Ikeja N200; totalling N1300,” they said.

“On our way back to Yaba, Palmgrove  and  Onipanu is N500, Fadeyi & total N500, Yaba N200; with LASG N800 ticket, it makes total of N3300 in the morning alone. We pay N2000 each in the afternoon and evening, which makes it total of N7300 daily”.

Lamenting further, the association stated that shuttle buses popularly called kororope, plying lyana iba-Okoko to Agbara  pay N5000 per day to motor park boys. It said this amount is excluding  the extra fee paid to “the  LASTMA , police department and  Lagos Task Force daily extortion”.  

The statement alleged  that refusal to pay the Police and  LASTMA tolls usually led to members’ arrest.

It said,  “When we resist the extortion, we get arrested and pay N10,000 for bail to the police while the motor park boys go scot free, and we also have to bail our buses separately.

“Lagos drivers also pay for entertainment, security, unit chairman’s food and many other ridiculous levy with threat of violence at any slight refusal by the drivers.

“This is the exact case of the popular parlance on exploitation of labourers, “baboon dey work, monkey dey chop”. Lagos commercial drivers work like elephants and eat like ants while the urchins under the aegis of motor park workers take a large chunk of our earnings. We can hardly fulfil our contractual obligations with our business partners, feed our family or afford maintenance or repair of our vehicles.”

Demands 

While calling on the Lagos State Government to intervene in their plights in the hands of agberos  , the association listed part of their demands to include the reduction of three passengers charge as fee  collected at garages to one par bus.

While kicking against collection of tolls at every bus-stop after paying their dues at their respective garages and parks, it demanded that “Lagos State Government ticket should be the only ticket paid for  in Lagos, while  others  like Lagos State parks & garages management, Lagos State care taker committee are not acceptable to all drivers in Lagos State.

“Harassment by law enforcement agencies and intimidation with guns, cutlass, broken bottles by LASTMA, task force and  RRS must end immediately. They collaborate and hire thugs to attack and extort us every day without violating any law.

“We have lesser bus stops for commercial vehicles. Most bus stops in Lagos are strictly assigned officially to BRT buses only and we get arrested for dropping off passengers at existing bus stops which are known to commuters as official bus stops for decades. We demand that the Lagos State government should provide official bus stops in each community to avoid incessant arrests and stress for commuters who complain of having to trek several kilometres back to their bus stops”.

The association said its members might be forced  to extend the boycott off the road if  the Lagos  State government  refuses to  look into its demand on the excessive extortion and harassment of it’s members by agberos.

Culled from Vanguard