‘They Collect Money At Every Bus Stop’ — Lagos Assembly To Stop Multiple Taxation By Transport Unions

The Lagos State House of Assembly has mulled plans to come up with a law to regulate multiple taxation by transport unions in the state.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, gave the hint at plenary on Tuesday following a motion raised by Temitope Adewale, over a recent protest against alleged extortion by the transport unions in the state.

Obasa, while stressing the need for the House to intervene, said something must be done to avoid a situation where the people would be forced to take laws into their own hands.

“This alleged extortion affects our people generally and looking at the economic condition of the country, we need to intervene. We must be able to define the paths that these unionists have to tread so that they do not make life unbearable for the people.

“At every bus stop, they collect money causing traffic snare. At the end, the man making the payment would go home with nothing and to avoid this, he has to put the weight on the commuters.

“We must avoid a situation where people would be moved to take laws into their hands. We need to extract seriousness out of this situation. Where there is a law, there will be penalties,” a statement by the media aide to the speaker quoted him as saying.

The House resolved to invite the transport unions in the state for discussion.

Multiple ticketing is a recurring decimal at Lagos bus-stops and garages. In March, commuters in the state were stranded at bus-stops as some commercial bus drivers downed tools to protest against excessive levies by touts at garages and bus-stops.

Drivers under the aegis of the Joint Drivers’ Welfare Association of Nigeria (JDWAN) had in October last year embarked on a seven-day strike to register their displeasure over the matter.

Some of the drivers who spoke to THE WHISTLER then had alleged that their daily levies rose from N13,500 to N18,300, adding that no prior notice was given to them before the increment was made.