As the celebrations begin, Nigerians who desire to travel will have to pay more for fares.
Abuja residents who want to spend their holidays away from the hustling and the bustling in the capital city will have to pay through their noses to get to their destination but this is due to the astronomical hike in transport fares.
In Nigeria, Christmas and New Year celebrations are usually a time when families from different parts of the country and those from diaspora reunite by coming together to spend the holidays.
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During this period, people engage in social activities like cultural festivals and Thanksgiving. It is why there is always a lot of traffic on
roads due to cross-country traveling. This in turn normally forces a hike in transport fares and compels many commuters to even risk alternatives to daytime commuter services at the regular motor parks.
Most transport companies see this season as an opportunity to make more money no matter how bad the economic situation is as they know passengers are desperate to visit their families.
TVC News Correspondent visited major parks to access the situation.
The Chairman at Nyanya motor park, Muhammad Ibrahim said the increase in transport fares is due to the hike in the price of fuel.
He also outlined challenges transporters face on the road especially during festive seasons due to insecurity.
He said “We are facing so many challenges, bad roads, road safety, insecurity and others.
Transport fares have been hiked by as high as 100 percent. Destinations that usually cost 2 000 naira have now been hiked to 3500 naira excluding luggage and in some parks it is higher.
At the park, passengers complained about the increase in price of Transportation, drivers say this is due to fuel scarcity and not intentional. Passengers are left with no choice but to pay the price as they are so anxious to spend the military season with their families.
In another related development, TVC News Correspondent Celestina Iria who also went out to monitor events said one of the things being experienced in the FCT in the past months and few weeks back is hike in pump price and reappearing queue in the FCT.
According to her, this was due to the downpour that affected the flood in various states that led to the FCT making it difficult for petroleum products to be brought from the down south to the up north which affected a lot of things because moving around in the FCT, prices of Transportation increased and also traveling from FCT to outside FCT, from Abuja to Nasarawa, Kogi and various States.
She added that most of the drivers complained of bad roads, increase in pump price and insecurity.
