Rafiu Agboola, Osogbo
The leadership of Commercial Minibus Drivers’ Association in Osogbo, Osun State has lamented the hardship and pains they are facing in the course of their commercial activities as a result of fuel subsidy removal.
The Intercity commercial drivers said they have created four bus stops across the city, mandating all its members to load passengers at the newly created Bus stops in order to conserve their fuel and save the amount the spend on petrol.
The minibus drivers who stormed popular Ola-Iya area around 8am on Wednesday with their buses lamented that they were not satisfied with the way things are going in the country, adding that the sudden hike in fuel prices has brought untold hardship on them.
In their peaceful awareness exercise on Wednesday morning on the new development, the Intercity commercial motorists halted the operations of commercial buses in Osogbo, in order to enforce the new operational system.
Speaking with Oodua News correspondent, the vice Chairman of the Mini bus drivers, Osogbo unit, Mr Abodele Lateef said “we decided to create a rout/ bus-stop for all mini bus in Osogbo so that we will save little money on fuel, hence our decision to divide the rout into four respectively.
“Those plying Ola-Iya, Ogo-Oluwa , Abeere , Owode-Ede will convey passengers from there and then turn back from garage Ilesha, while Owode will convey passengers from there and then turn back with their passengers. Those from Ota Efun and others will also do the same at Oke-fia. Dada Estate will drop their passengers and turn back so that we will not waste too much fuel. This exercise will take effect from tomorrow, he added.
“This rout idea and what we are doing today is just to create awareness for people to know about our operations. Our step do not affect the government of the state because we know we are in the state capital and we can’t stop the mini bus (korope) from working so that it will not affect the people who will be going to work.
“This idea came on the day we heard about subsidy removal.”
We also noticed that many passengers were stranded on Tuesday, as a result of the development.
Speaking on the pump price hike, a commercial motorists who identified himself as Taofeek, lamented the hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.
He noted that even when the subsidy was first removed, majority of the commercial drivers could not afford the N500 price when it was initially implemented.
Taofeek said majority of them receive the increment in the pump price in a shock adding that “we do not expect more hardship than what we are currently experiencing,”
He therefore appealed to government to provide parliative that will cushion the effect of the hardship on the citizenry.
