NURTW attributes hike in transport fare to police extortion

Chairman of the Oyo State council of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo), has attributed the hike in transport fare in the state to extortion by the police.

Some commercial bus drivers had on Thursday withdrawn their buses from some routes in Ibadan, the state capital, alleging that union officials were extorting them.


But Akinsola on Friday insisted that the union did not charge commercial drivers more than N100 per day.

He charged the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, to prevail on the state police command to put a stop to the illegal fees being collected by its men from members of the union.

He further alleged that members of the union had been finding it difficult to survive because of the various money being collected by men of the state police command at many road blocks in the state.

Akinsola alleged that police extortion had contributed to the high transport fare charged by members of the union as they had no other choice but to pass the burden of police extortion to the passengers.

The NURTW boss said that men of the police command often threatened the drivers with arrest if they failed to pay the money imposed on them.

Akinsola urged the IG to call on the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Adisa Bolanta, to quickly wade into the matter by ensuring that the illegal toll being collected by his men is stopped in the interest of peace in the state.

He threatened that members of the union might be forced to take the law into their own hands should the situation continue.

Akinsola explained that the only money the union staff were authorised to collect at the motor parks from the drivers was N100 per day to be collected twice, adding that any other fee outside this was not only illegal but lacked the support of the union as any staff found to be engaging in such act, if reported to the union, would be dealt with .

He said, “The union is based on law and would not engage in things that would bring hardship to the people of the state, the money being collected is for the running of the union and this is always accounted for, all other money being paid by the drivers is beyond the power of the union, it is important that the members should disregard the illegal parks created by the administration of the former governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala.

“We cannot but appeal to the IG to wade into the situation in the state by ensuring that his men stopped the money been collected illegally from the bus drivers as this is bringing another burden on the good people of the state.”

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