Increasing Transport Fares Over Recent Levy Will Not Be Tolerated – Lagos State

The Lagos State Government has come out to warn intrastate commercial drivers after the harmonised N800 daily levy they will each pay to the government starting from February 1.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso recently revealed this via a statement, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the guaranteed levy shouldn’t warrant an increase in transport fares because it wouldn’t be tolerated in any way.

Lagos State added that rather than creating an additional burden, the levy would stop multiple charges motorists paid to agencies and local government authorities.

His words, “What we are doing is to ensure that drivers and passengers are protected. If the driver takes up from Badagry for example, and he is going to Lagos Island, between the two ends, there are about three to four local government areas and he has to pay some money at each local government.”

“What the Lagos State Government is now doing is to harmonise the whole thing and ensure that once you collect a ticket from the take-off point, you don’t need to collect another ticket from anywhere. So once the money is collected, the local governments are going to get their own share there.”

“There shouldn’t be (any increase). Any driver that wants to increase the fare because he has to pay N800 instead of N3,000 is being mischievous. That is why the unions are involved so that drivers won’t complain that they are paying N800 more.”

“They (drivers) pay as much as N3,000 to travel from one end to another and they are complaining. They are being carried along and many of them are embracing the idea (of N800 levy) and say that if it works, it will solve all their problems. If a driver pays N800 per day henceforth and anybody stops on the road claiming to be working for the local government, such person is committing an offence.”

“But the levy has nothing to do with the unions because they collect their dues from drivers as members. A union has its own tickets and every driver gets it. If any driver doesn’t have it, the union has a right to demand payment.”