Business
Yuletide: Transporters Lament Low Patronage
Two days to Christmas celebration, transporters in the FCT expressed mixed reactions over low patronage.
Our correspondents who monitored some parks in the FCT reports that the motor parks were empty with very few persons travelling.
Mr Adam Shehu, a long journey driver in Utako Motor Park, said that patronage was low compared to what it used to be in previous years.
“People are not travelling the way they did last year. By this time last year, we were not looking for passengers, because we were very busy.
“It is not that we increased the fare, it is still the same, but passengers are few,” he said. Mr Sunday Amos, another driver, said that although people were travelling, it was not as busy as it used to be during Christmas. “We increased our fares not because of the season but because of the bad roads, instead of two lanes, we are using one lane and that is very bad.
“It causes a lot of delay and it is very dangerous if,a long vehicle fall across the road, that means we will not get to our destination same day and this is bad for our business,” he added.
Amos called on the Federal Government to look into the bad condition of roads and to rehabilitate them as soon as possible.
The situation was, however, different at Karu and Nyanya parks where lots of commuters were seen getting ready to travel for the Christmas.
A driver, Mr Moses Udoh, said there had been an increase in the number of vehicles leaving the parks recently. “I believe this is due to the festive season and everyone wants to go and see his loved ones.
“Instead of five to seven vehicles that we do record daily, we are now recording between fifteen and twenty.
Udoh said that transport fares had increased as Abuja to Lagos or Abeokuta that used to be N3,500 is now N5,000. as Abuja to Jos is now N1,500 as against N1,200, while Abuja to Katsina remained N2,000 as usual. Fares from Abuja to Enugu, Aba and Akwa Ibom has also increase to N3,500, N4,500 and N6,000 as against N2,000 and N3,500 respectively.