By Justina Amiosino, Firdausi Attahiru, Oguche Happiness, Ilani favour and Ujah Victoria.
Residents of Kogi state have continued to lament the high cost of transportation fares
In Lokoja the state capital, The Graphic observed a hike in transportation fares by commercial transport operators mainly Keke tricycle riders and motorcycle operators popularly called Okada
For instance, a ride or ‘drop’ that use to be between N100 and N150 now cost between N200 and N300 depending on the distance.
Students of the tertiary institutions in Felele community situated along the Abuja-Okene highway, namely Kogi State Polytechnic, Federal University Lokoja as well as the Nigeria–Korea Friendship Institute of Vocational and Advanced Technology have lamented the effects of the current fare hike on their studies.
Before the present increase, students shuttling between Lokoja town and Felele paid N300 per trip now the least they pay is N700 whenever they have engagements in town.
Commuters are left stranded on a daily basis at various bus stops due to the sudden increase in transport while others prefer to treck especially short distances to save cost.
It was also observed that there were few cars and motorcycles on the road forcing the large number of starnded commuters to scrabble for the available taxis.
Even the popular Kosi Owo (no money) bus stop patronised by mostly civil servants around the Ganaja flyover area has increased in size. Workers now spend hours trying to get free rides from colleagues or good Samaritans ply the route to the state secretariat complex.
Attendance for weekly or daily religious programs in churches and mosques has reduced drastically as the situation bites harder.
Also, socio-economic activities especially small business operations have experienced low patronage as people now reorder their priorities.Just as people avoid unnecessary expenses.
The Graphic also observed that most filling stations in the state capital remain closed while the few that have the product have increased their pump price.
An Okada rider, Mohammed Idris, lamented over the rise in cost of petrol stressing that the current price of fuel was too high.
“We were buying petrol for between N700 and N800 but now it is N1000 per liter”. And that they were left with no other option than to hike fares.
To worsen the situation, cost of goods and services have been affected by the current hike in the price of transportation fares.
