Moses Akaigwe

The controversy trailing the September, 2017 clampdown on inter-state transport terminals in some parts of Lagos by the state government, is not about to subside soon. Rather, the matter has taken a complicated turn with the affected transporters taking Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode and the state authorities to court.

In addition to insisting on the operators complying with the rules and regulations governing the transport sector as articulated through the Ministry of Transportation, the Lagos state government has advanced another reason for its action: That the buildings occupied by the transporters are located in residential areas and covered by the Metroline project initiated 31 years ago.

However, the luxury bus owners and about 12 other operators whose businesses were affected by the directive, are in suit number ID/4603GCMW/17, seeking an order from a Lagos high court to stop the state government from restricting their activities on the busy Ikorodu Road to Jibowu /Yaba axis.

The transporters are also seeking a compensation of N500 million, which they say is strictly the aggregate loss in revenue they have suffered since their respective terminals were sealed off by enforcement agents. They argue that they resorted to litigation since all entreaties to the state government to reverse the restriction or reach a compromise, were rebuffed.

The Lagos state government had four months ago given the transporters seven days to vacate the area and relocate to Ojota and Ojodu Berger in compliance with a transport policy which restricts all inter-state passenger and cargo operations to designated motor parks at various entry points to the mega city.

It was learnt at Jibowu that only four days after the order was issued, a team of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) task force, policemen and mobile policemen, stormed the area, cordoning off the arrival/departure stations of all the transport firms, and towing away no fewer than 16 vehicles.

Till date, armed uniformed men and their vehicles have remained at various points in the area to ensure that boarding of passengers and loading of cargo do not continue – an action which, the transporters maintain, has frozen their operations with adverse effect on their revenue generation.

Last week in Alausa, the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation stated that there has never been a place for inter-state operators on the Ikorodu Road/Jibowu corridor in the state’s transport master-plan. This, perhaps, partially explains why the two parties were not able to find an acceptable middle ground before the divergent arguments became a matter for litigation.

Speaking to The Sun in his office, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Prince Olanrewaju Elegushi, reinforced the government’s stand, saying the operators’ activities also posed security challenges in the area.

Prince Elegushi further asserted that, in addition to the operators occupying structures originally built for residential purposes and disturbing the flow of vehicular traffic, their vehicles also damage the welded wire fences demarcating both sides of the busy road.

“I hear they have gone to court…maybe they think that is the best way to resolve the issue,” the S.A to the Governor said. He was, however, not willing to respond to other questions arising from the controversial directive, because, according to him, there were other commitments to attend to.

Sources at the Transportation Ministry hinted the reporter of the claim by the government that the properties occupied by the operators in the area were originally private residences. It was also alleged that compensation was paid to the landlords long ago in view of the envisaged demolition of the structures to make way for the Metroline project embarked on by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration.

At the secretariat of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria {ALBOB} in Yaba, the National President, Prince Chukwuemeka Mamah, was said to be unavailable, but he confirmed in a phone conversation later, that the victims of the Jibowu clampdown had come together to seek redress in court.

Mamah disclosed that “before the last option of going to court,” various attempts were made by the affected associations to resolve the matter amicably with the state government.

Among them, he explained, were memos which pleaded with Gov. Ambode to allocate plots of land with certificates of occupancy {C of O} and a design model to the transporters to enable them relocate elsewhere and be properly guided as they develop new terminals.

The ALBON National President also described the Ojota Motor Park the inter-state transporters are being compelled to move to, as very unsuitable and insufficiently equipped for their kind of operation, even as he complained that the place had already been occupied by other unions.

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 Reacting to the claim that the inter-state transporters operate from residential buildings for which the owners had been recompensed, Prince Mamah said most of the properties have always been used as business premises, recalling that until the luxury bus firms came to the area many years ago, it used to be the den of criminals and miscreants.

“I know that one of the buildings used to be Faze 2 nightclub decades ago, while another one was occupied by an engineering firm. I am also very much aware that one of the buildings presently occupied by a luxury bus company used to be Crossroads Hotel those days. So, how come that suddenly the area has become strictly residential? ” he asked.

He described the claim of compensation to the property owners well ahead of a demolition that is yet to take place as an afterthought, because documents the transporters had sighted and the realities of their relationship with the landlords, do not agree with the allegation.

The luxury bus owners’ President argued that the operators should rather be given credit for making the axis safe after some of the businesses in the area collapsed and their owners abandoned their investments due to the menace of the hoodlums.

“Come to think of it, how come we are being blamed for traffic hitches? We are inter-city transporters and our operations last only between 6:am and 9:am,” Mamah remarked, stating that the operators fully support the state’s new transport policy and are still open to dialogue provided their billions of naira worth of investments are brought into consideration.

Arguing that the that the transporters need at least three years notice, the General Manager of a transport firm with loading station in Jibowu, argued that it was unfair to “wake up one morning and ask people who had invested in the area for many decades”, to relocate immediately.

 “I know that some pioneers in the business, like Ekene Dili Chukwu Nig Ltd, have been operating here in Jibowu since the early 80s.Almost all the operators have stations developed with money obtained from the bank. These are the people that were given seven days to leave, and the stations bloced off immediately,” the General Manager lamented.

Also reacting, one of the leading luxury bus transporters, Chief Eugene Ojukwu, described the short {seven-day} notice and the unwillingness of the Lagos state government to provide alternative locations that are conducive, as very insensitive to the plight of the companies that have over the decades been investing heavily in the development of the terminals.

Ojukwu, whose E. Ekesons Bros. Nigeria Limited, is one the pathfinders of luxury bus transportation, likened the manner the Jibowu stations were sealed off to a military operation, stating that the invasion of the armed men and the wide publicity that followed it had scared away intending passengers form the area. This, the Ekesons Chairman lamented, further jeopardised luxury bus transporters which had been in distress for years now with many of the companies collapsing. He said it was heart-breaking that the state government did not take into cognisance the fact that the operators took loans to develop the infrastructure that ease their operations and the deep trouble the forced relocation would land them in when they fail to service the facilities from the banks.

“What they don’t seem to know is that long distance transportation today is already endangered. It is full of risks, heavily capital-intensive, and takes many years for investors to pay back loans from the banks, not to talk of making profit,” Chief Ojukwu, who was the ALBON President, some years ago, asked. “Have they tried to find out why new investors are not coming into the business or why many of the existing transport firms are collapsing? Some of us that are still operating are rendering patriotic service, not making profit. So, we deserve support, not harsh treatment.”

Following the siege on Jibowu in September, a coalition of the concerned transport owners and operators had a few weeks later held a meeting where they bemoaned the heavy toll the closure of their private terminals was taking on them, and appealed for dialogue with the state government towards finding a mutually acceptable solution to the matter.

In their communiqué, the coalition – consisting of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria {ALBON}, Association of Mass Transit Operators of Nigeria {AMTO} and Association of Benin Transport Owners {ABTO} –  appealed for a reversal of the restriction on all private bus stations. The participants also assured the government of their willingness to take measures that would engender sanity and unhindered vehicular movement in the area.

Part of the communiqué which was signed by the ALBON President and coalition steering committee Chairman, Prince Mamah; AMTO Chairman, Chief Greg Inyaba; and Isaac Uhunmwagho, an engineer, for ABTO, read: “Bus operators at Jibowu neither subscribe to, nor support member-companies loading their buses and discharging their passengers along the major highway. Therefore, we promise to organise and maintain free-flow of traffic in our respective areas of operation.”

 “The businesses of the associations’ members are collapsing as they can no longer meet up their financial obligations to their banks as the loans they took from the financial institutions were based on projected daily revenue returns from the closed bus stations.”

Both parties also disagree on the condition of Ojota Motor Park. While the Special Adviser insisted in his office that the place is set for the coming of the long-distance transporters, Prince Mamah, Chief Ojukwu and their colleagues contend that “the all-comers park” is not ready and not conducive for their type of operations.

In one of the joint letters to Gov. Ambode, ALBON, Corporate Bus Owners and other operators in Jibowu, observed that Ojota New Garage “is currently fully utilised and occupied by the members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW),” while Ojodu Berger “is currently under construction and will take quite sometimes before work at the site is completed.”

As at weekend, all the interstate transporters who commented on the issue, said they were optimistic that though the matter is already a subject of litigation, the Lagos state government would reconsider its tough stance and discuss with them on finding a solution that would hurt neither of the parties’ interests – the state’s transport master-plan and the transporters’ investments and business activities.