Many passengers were on Wednesday stranded in several parts of Lagos as commercial drivers protested over exorbitant levies collected by officials of the Lagos State Park and Gardens headed by Musiliu Akinsanya popularly known as MC Oluomo in Lagos.
The protest which started at the Toll Gate end of the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway is fast spreading to other parts of the state.
Passengers were seen trekking long distances to their various destinations as the bus drivers refused to operate, citing exorbitant extortion and alleged brutality by the state backed union.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the bus drivers and their conductors were seen carrying various placards protesting against the alleged extortion by motor park touts popularly known as “Agbero”.
The inscriptions on the placards read, “we are tired of Agberos extortion”, “we can’t continue working for Agberos”, “we pay over N25,000 daily to agberos extortion”, “Extortion is killing us,” among others.
One of the drivers, Musiliu Onafowokan, said agbero extortion is killing drivers in Lagos as their profit margin is being eroded on a daily basis.
Onafowokan said, “as drivers, we can’t meet daily responsibilities anymore, we pay so much to agberos on a daily basis and we can’t make ends means again. We can’t meet our responsibilities at home as well.
“Our children can’t go to school anymore, we are working for the agberos. They destroy our vehicles if we don’t pay ontime, it’s better for the government to do something about it so fast because we won’t stop protesting until something is done.”
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