Commuters Seek Effective Transportation System In FCT

Commuters plying the
airport route in Abuja last Monday called on the FCT Administration to provide an effective transportation system for the area.
The commuters told  our correspondent  in Abuja that inadequacy of commercial vehicles conveying residents to various destinations in the FCT was affecting socio-economic activities.
Mr Charles Emeka, a business man, decried the long queue of commuters waiting to board vehicles to their places of work, especially in the morning.
“This is what we normally go through every morning in almost all the junctions of the satellite villages along the Airport Road, due to inadequate high capacity buses.
“This situation is becoming frustrating and people sometimes quarrel among themselves in the process of rushing to board the few available vehicles to their various places of work.
“The situation is most unfortunate because the development sometimes leads to outright fighting among the commuters,” Emeka said.
According to Hajia Ummul Muhammad, the situation is worse in the early hours of the day because of inadequate number of taxis and buses.
Muhammad observed that commuters found it difficult to get to their various destinations even in the day time.
This, he attributed to inadequate or non-availability of taxis and buses to transport them to their various places of work.
Mr Tijani Usman, who was seen struggling with other passengers to board a taxi, noted that the passengers had outnumbered the available vehicles. Usman said that in one of such instances, he was pushed into a culvert by some passengers while struggling to board a commercial bus recently at one of the junctions at Airport road.
Also commenting, Mrs Angela Amadi, a commuter, attributed the hike in transport fares from the route to other places within the FCT, to inadequacy of government owned high-capacity buses. She said that the development was forcing many workers residing along the route to leave their homes very early, to get transportation to their places of work.
The commuters called on the FCT administration to tackle the problem, to alleviate their suffering and curb loss of man hours.
Reacting to the development, the FCT Minister, Alhaji Bala Muhammed, promised to import at least 100 buses from China between April and May.
Muhammed expressed optimism that the policy would boost the transportation system within the FCT, when the buses became operational.