Transporters revert to old fares
Transporters have reverted to the old fares from Lagos to other parts of the country after the Christmas, New Year and Eid el-Kabir festivities.
Checks by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at some commercial vehicle loading stations showed that transporters were charging pre-festivity fares for passengers travelling out of Lagos.
Passengers returning to Lagos, however, paid more.
Two days to the Christmas, fares doubled and in some cases tripled on some routes, especially the Eastern states.
An official of a luxury bus transport company at the Mazamaza loading station said luxury bus operators had increased fares from the East to Lagos.
The official, who gave his name simply as Jeremiah, however, said fares for those travelling out of Lagos to the East remained normal.
According to him, passengers are paying N2,660 from Lagos to Enugu and Onitsha, while those coming to Lagos are charged about N3,000.
Mr Kasim Suleiman, a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, said he paid N800 from Auchi to Benin as against the normal N500.
''I paid N2,200 from Benin to Lagos as against N1,200 before Dec. 22.''
A mini-bus driver plying the Lagos-Onitsha route at the Alafia loading station, Mr Ola Akindeje, said the scarcity of fuel during the period was the main problem of transporters.
He explained that drivers purchased petrol at about N100 per litre.
''As of now, passengers from Onitsha to Lagos are