Yuletide: Passengers lament hike in transport fare in Ibadan

Some passengers, who are travelling from Ibadan to other parts of the country, have lamented the hike in transport fare, occasioned by increase in fuel price and the yuletide.

Visits by our correspondent to some major motor parks within Ibadan metropolis showed that transport fares from Ibadan to other states in Nigeria had increased astronomically.

The motor parks visited included: Challenge, Iwo-Road, New Garage and Ojoo, all within Ibadan city.

A passenger at New Garage motor park, Mr Joel Chukemeka, said that he paid N8,000 as transport fare from Ibadan to Benin, Edo, as against the N5,000 he used to pay before the fuel price hike and the yuletide.

Another passenger travelling to Asaba, Delta, Miss Chioma Inyama, also told our correspondent that she paid N10,200 for the journey instead of the N5,800 she used to pay.

Inyama said that she could have shelved the journey during this festive period but decided to do so because she had an import matter to attend to in her village.

Also speaking, Mr Tajudeen Ajibade, a passenger at Challenge motor park, said the sum of N4,500 was collected from him for a journey to Lagos.

Ajibade said that he used to pay N2,000 for the same journey before the fuel price hike and the Christmas and New Year festivities.

He said that the increase in fuel price, coupled with the yuletide period, had contributed to the hike in cost of transportation.

Mrs Hassant Umar, a passenger at Ojoo motor park, said that she paid N3,000 transportation fare from Ibadan to Ilorin, instead of the normal N2,000.

A commercial driver, Adewale Oladejo, however, attributed the transport fare hike to the challenges being faced by drivers in getting fuel.

Oladejo, who said that they bought fuel for between N250 or N300 per litre, expressed the regret that the situation had resulted in low turn-out of passengers at motor parks.

He said that there were usually long queues at the few petrol stations selling between N179 and N200 per litre, stating that one could spend up to six hours before getting fuel.

Oladejo called on the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the petroleum sector to urgently address the situation.