Lagos residents have decried the recent increase in transport fare occasioned by fuel scarcity.
Urging the federal government to immediately fix the crisis, some residents of the busy metropolis on Wednesday, accused commercial motorists of taking advantage of the situation.
Investigations show that transport fare has had an increase of between 20 to 70 percent across the state.
For instance, commercial motorists have increased the fare from N80 to N100 from Berger to Agege; N40 to N70 from Idi-Araba to Yaba; N250 to N300 from Ikorodu to Yaba; and N20 to N30 from Yaba to Ojuelegba.
Tayo Durojaiye, who described the situation as "terrible", said that the increment was getting unbearable.
"I'm a salary worker and increases here and there have a big impact on salary because it remains the same, while things continue to increase," he said.
Sheriff Adedeji, said he had devised a way to keep his transport expenses low, by taking the public mass transit,Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the LAGBUS.
"These ones have not increased their fare, so I queue up to take them on routes they ply anytime I can," he said.
"Not our fault"
However, commercial motorists have blamed the situation on the scarcity, which they claimed has reduced their profit, in spite of jerk-up in transport fare.
A bus driver plying Idi-Araba to Yaba, who did not want his name published, said getting fuel had been tough for motorists.
He said that in spite of the hours they waste on queues at the fuel stations, motorists also "have to shout continuously before they finally answer us.”
Another bus driver plying Yaba to Ojuelegba, said he had been spendingmore than five hours in filling stationsto get fuel.
"We can’t use keg to buy because it’s shortage. We used to work for the whole day before but now, because ofthe scarcity and the time wasted, we only go five times," he said.
Petrol palaver
Queues of vehicles have recently resurfaced in many filling stations across Lagos, particularly those belonging to major and independent marketers.
Before now, the scarcity of fuel had hit some other major cities like Abuja,Ibadan and Port-Harcourt.
Investigations revealed that some of the few stations selling fuel were selling at N110, with motorists expected to part with N200 bribe before getting the fuel, in some cases.
Also a 10 litre gallon of petrol on the black market goes for around N2, 500.
No end in sight
However, Isiaka Yahaya, Auditor General of the Sahara Unit of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), disclosed that the ongoing fuel scarcity in Lagos might linger for some time.
He said that marketers' inability to import the product led to the current scarcity.
Yahaya said that the marketers could not import petrol because of government’s failure to settle subsidyclaims of some marketers.
"Out of the more than 10 depots in Apapa, only one is loading trucks and the loading capacity is going down ondaily basis," he said