We are at the mercy of private car owners, FCT residents cry out

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has lamented that commuters in and within the city have to depend majorly on private car owners for their means of transportation.

Tribune Online investigation reveals that in some areas, residents would have to wait for over an hour or more before accessing a means of transportation to work.

Speaking with a resident of Kurudu whose office is in Garki, Area 3, Sunday Agbo said “getting a vehicle to convey me to town during rush hour is a struggle.

“You have to struggle for a seat once a vehicle arrives at this junction (pointing at the Army barracks phase 2 junction) or you may end up going to work very late,” he stated.

The situation is not different from that of Jikwoyi and Nyanya as our reporter witnessed commuters rushing vehicles on the arrival in order to secure seats.

Joy Attah told Tribune Online that “how fast one gets a vehicle here depends on many things, if there is hold up on the road, many car owners would decide to wait till the tariff jam reduces. That means commuters will have to wait for a long time.

“Sometimes, if few car owners are stopping to pick people, it will also be a challenge as the population of commuters would keep swelling up with few vehicles available and everyone desiring to get to work early. We just have to go through this vehicle struggling experience every working day.”

She lamented that “you know there is no public transportation system here in the Capital City, there are taxi vehicles but they are not enough.

“So we have to depend on vehicle owners who work in town to take us to work and bring us back home,” she stated.

In Lugbe, the situation is the same as well as in Kubwa areas. All over the FCT, residents depend largely on private vehicle owners for their daily transportation needs.

In 2013, FCT Administration banned commercial buses popularly known as Araba from plying routes in the main city giving reasons that the policy was to reduced traffic-congested within the city metropolis as the buses were becoming a nuisance to the city.

The Administration then said only licensed high capacity buses popularly known as El-Rufia buses would cater for the transportation needs of residents on major routes into the city centre.

In 2015, FCT Administration bought over 100 high capacity buses and added up to the buses that were already on the ground sending them to all the major routes leading into the city.

The Administration went further to dedicate some of the buses to ply some major routes within the city.

However, these buses did not last much as within a year, they started breaking down and their number on various routes began to diminish.

By 2017, most of the El-Rufia buses were seen parked at FCTA yard along Kubwa road and other yards within the city leaving a scanty number to ply major routes like Gwagwalada, Nyanya and Zuba Suleja route.

It seemed to lack of maintenance of these buses made it difficult for the administration to keep them running on the road. Gradually, these buses are becoming invisible and residents are now paying the hard price.

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We are at the mercy of private car owners, FCT residents cry out

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We are at the mercy of private car owners, FCT residents cry out