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By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
Over the years, some groups of persons have taken over different motor parks and bus stops in Lagos to collect different kinds of levies from commercial bus drivers.
In the course of doing this, it usually resulted in scuffles. Blood is sometimes shed too. Many Lagos residents have described the levy collectors as untamed monsters that rule and reign in broad daylight.
Some commercial bus drivers in Lagos pick passengers at bus stops while others queue in the parks to load their vehicles.
But these commercial drivers have different stories to tell as they are descended on by some miscreants, popularly called agbero.
There are growing concerns over the unruly activities of these agberos. Many commercial bus drivers had in the past protested against the activities of these set of people who they described as their tormentors.
Everyday, they keep expanding their activities by positioning themselves at bus stops, imposing levies on commercial drivers. They are armed with canes or sticks as well as markers to label buses that they had collected levies from. They, in most cases, use force and extra-judicial tactics to collect the money from the commercial drivers or their conductors.
As often witnessed, the touts collect money from commercial drivers for dropping or picking passengers.
Many residents are worried that their operations are becoming fiercer in Lagos, at times leading to chaos and deaths as they often operate under the influence of substances. They are usually brutal to the drivers and their conductors who hesitate to pay the demanded levies. The commercial drivers are complaining and calling for help saying that the levies have become too heavy on them.
Sometimes they destroy vehicles of drivers that refuse to comply and obstruct traffic flow in the process without fear of being challenged by government authorities.
They are also allegations that many of them are ready tools in the hands of desperate politicians.
Daily Sun spoke to some of the drivers and commuters who revealed their plight as commercial drivers and how touts have become untamed monsters in a commercial city such as Lagos.
A commercial driver, Osifoh, who operates along old Ojo Road, lamented that the stress he faces each day was becoming unbearable in addition to the deplorable state of the road.
He said: “We spend so much to repair our vehicles. After paying all the levies, we are left with little or nothing to take home. Nobody cares how we maintain our buses.
“Apart from the money we pay to the touts, we are harassed and attacked physically by hoodlums using various weapons that can lead to severe injuries.”
There was an incident at about 2pm in late July as a result of unruly act of touts against commercial drivers.
As gathered, Tega and his bus conductor were about to leave the park at Morogbo, even after booking a ticket the morning, but the touts were said not to have satisfied.
As learnt, the bus conductor said he was not having smaller denominations to part with, but the driver was forced to ask what exactly the money was for and the tout responded ‘owo ero’ in Yoruba dialect.
“The driver beckoned on him to come to the other side and the tout obliged and he explained that they had been at the mechanic workshop since morning, promising to pay on their next trip.”
“At this point, the tout got angry, flared up and was about to dismantle the side mirror. The next thing we saw was the tout started chasing the conductor with a big stick, but the vehicle zoomed off,” the witness said.
However, he said the tout didn’t give up as he continued to run after the bus and he threw the stick at the conductor, but it hit an elderly lady’s stomach and she was groaning in pain. Upon seeing what he had done, he disappeared into the thin air.
Another commercial driver, who identified himself only as Odanibe, said for him to meet up with his delivery money, he has to do as many trips as possible.
He stated: “Once we don’t comply, they begin to remove things from our vehicles, such as seats, wiper, side mirrors and even windows. I ply Iyana-Iba to Mile2, and we pay money on every trip
“I give out over N100 to the touts every time I pass their junctions. They run after the bus, demanding their levies. But where we load, they collect some charges too.”
Odanibe stated that the charges could vary, but drivers generally pay three types.
‘Booking fee’ is paid so they can start work at the motor parks every morning. Before each trip, they pay ‘loading charge’, which is usually a sum equal to the fare of two passengers.
Some drivers told Daily Sun that they end up handing over about half their daily earnings to the agberos.
Tricycle driver, Taofik used to work as a barber before he ventured into commercial driving. He said he thought it would help him make a better living.
One year after, he has changed his route due to the increasing charges demanded by the union and the police along his former route.
“At the end of the day, if you check the money you have earned, you will see it is nothing. You ask yourself if this is all I have worked for all day.
“On days that I wake up late, I always decide not to go to work again. I must start working as early as 6:30am to meet up the demands of the unions and earn something tangible for myself. If I start work by 8am, I can’t meet targets for the rest of the day.
“You pay the union in the morning, afternoon and evening. And sometimes you don’t even know the reason, you just continue to pay,” Taofik lamented.
A bus conductor, Asuquo, said: “I and an agbero engaged in a tussle over levies in Okokomaiko.
“I have had countless fights with them; we fight often. It is trouble if you don’t give them money.
“Early in August, I was involved in a brawl with some agberos at Iyana Oba. It was close to noon that day and the particular agbero was asking for afternoon money.
“My bus driver heard our argument. I told him when we go on one more trip, we would pay. The argument continued and all of a sudden he wounded me in the face with a key. My bus driver could not take it; he came down from the driver’s seat and they fought each other.
“At the end, nothing happened because the chairman was involved, it was just me and their boys.”
Ezemadu Okolie, a commercial driver, who also plies the Lagos-Badagry Expressways, stated that the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) as an independent union that oversees all commercial bus drivers and other commercial vehicle operators, should be trained and tamed on their excesses.
Many drivers have lamented that the union only serves themselves.
A concerned Lagos resident, Mrs. Hilda Yerima, stated that the union leaders should be held accountable whenever their boys destroy property, especially with the use of force.
“It is because whenever they damage or destroy property they get away with it that is why they continue.
“Agberos hide under the umbrella of NURTW to break the law and evade arrest whenever the police deem it necessary,” she said.
Another resident, Ojekunle Ogendegbe said they should ban NURTW “to maintain peace and tranquility in the state.
“The public transport system in Lagos has been infiltrated by unskilled, illiterate youths ready to do the bidding of well-known thugs at the helm of the union because the state government has refused to implement standard policy guides that have been drafted by various commissions.
“Also there is no policy framework. Sanity can only begin with policies. Without policies, nothing can work. That is why there is this level of extortion and violence. Do you know how much the government makes per day? There is serious money in transportation. I mean billions,” Ogendegbe noted.
