Lagos motorists cry out over multiple levies

Commercial transport workers in parts of Lagos State are lamenting that despite the strike action organised by motorists under the aegis of the Joint Drivers Welfare Association in November 2022, the situation has remained the same as they still pay multiple levies to members of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management.

PUNCH Metro reported that the JDWAN had embarked on a seven-day strike over allegations of multiple levies and other forms of extortion allegedly by members of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management which led to a sharp increase in fares and stranded passengers along bus stops in the city.

Our correspondent gathered from some of the drivers that the management of garages in the metropolis is adamant about the collection of multiple levies such that if they (drivers) refuse to pay, their vehicles would not be allowed to pick up passengers.

A driver who plies Oshodi and Sango routes, Adewale Oluwafemi, told our correspondent that he still pays about 10 to 15 levies from Oshodi where he picks up his passengers.

He said, “The strike has achieved nothing for many of us who are commercial drivers because, from Oshodi where I pick up passengers going to Sango, I still pay as much as N200 at some bus stops when passengers disembark or board my vehicle.

“At the suspension of the strike by drivers last November, most of us felt that the government would at least stop this issue of paying the ‘Agberos’ at every junction where we stop and pick up passengers but that has not been the case.”

Another driver, Wasiu Gbadamosi, narrated his ordeal in the hands of officials of park and garages management at Iyana Ipaja over multiple fees in the garage to our correspondent. He said his bus was stopped from picking up passengers because he refused to pay some levies.

“Agberos at our park in Iyana-Ipaja did not allow me to pick up passengers on time today. It was only after two buses had gone that I was allowed to pick up passengers. They even confronted me and told me that since I am always confronting them (Agberos) over park levies, they would also continue to delay my bus from loading passengers,” he said. Punch