How Agberos injure drivers, vandalise vehicles in Lagos – Commercial drivers

Feyitayo who is the General Secretary,
Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria (JODWAN), in Lagos, said the incident occurred in Badagry about a month ago.

He said Anisere was coming out of his home to pick passengers when some garage touts swooped on him and all his pleas that he was just starting the day’s work fell on deaf ears and he was beaten Black and Blue while his vehicle was damaged

’70% of our daily earnings go to the coffers of garage boys and touts. From Badagry to Mile 2, we pay between N3,500 and N5,000 at 25 illegal tolls created by motor park hoodlums, who collect from N200 to N300 per bus.

‘’From Seme Park, we pay N7,100 before the first trip, yet, we forcefully pay levies at the 25 illegal tolls. On federal mass and Coaster buses, we pay N12,000 and above on each trip from Oko-Afo to CMS which includes loading charges at various bus-stops.

‘’from Ogijo to Ikorodu, we pay N5,500 and above excluding garage ticket (N850), chairman ticket (N1,700), King’s levy (N200), Ita-Oluwo (N500), Ile-Epo-Oba (N200) and N900 for picking or dropping passengers.

‘’Red buses from Ikorodu to Oshodi pay N5,000 while buses plying Yaba to Ikeja, Ketu to Oyingbo and several other areas are forced to pay beyond their nose to avoid their vehicles being damaged.

‘’To make the matter worse, the garage boys and touts have the backings of the state government to unleash terror on innocent drivers. We are the professional drivers but garage boys and touts are making life unbearable for us. They are usually on the road with sticks, rods, pipes and cutlasses to snuff life out of innocent drivers’’ said the dtiver.

The commercial drivers said their strike action slated for Monday, October 31, 2022 will take place as planned.

They urged residents to bear with them as the strike does not intend to inflict punishment on them but to protest multiple extortion by members of Lagos State Parks and Management Committee, led by Musiliu Akinsanya (MC Oluomo) and law enforcement agencies.

The Lead Counsel to the drivers, Ayo Ademiluyi, said the 70% of the driver’s income goes to the covers of the park managers who wiekd dangerous weapons on Lagos roads to beat, maim, kill drivers and vandalism their vehicles
for refusing to adhere to the levies imposed on them.

He kicked against the formation of the parks and garages committee saying this was not backed up by law.

The National Leader of the association, Comrade Akintade Abiodun said the multiple levies on the joint drivers by the garage boys and law enforcement agents have led to increase in the prices of food items in Lagos compared with other states, as consignments into the state are heavily levied by garage boys and touts who mount road blocks on Lagos roads to extort the drivers.

The State Chairman of the association, Opeyemi Sulaiman urged the government to look into the yearnings of the drivers before it is too late. ‘’We are professional drivers, garage boys and touts are not licensed but are battle ready to cause chaos on the roads. We have reported them to gthe state government on several occasions but nothing was done,’’

Ademiluyi listed the demands of the drivers to include: Scrapping of unlawful levies across the state other than that of the state government, the state government to present a proof that the parks and garages committee is backed by the law and creation of more bus-stops for Lagos transporters apart from that of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).