Reps Move To End Festive Seasons Transport Fare Hikes

The House of Representatives has resolved to move against hike in transport fares by operators of commercial vehicles during festive seasons.

At the plenary on Monday, a member from Imo State, Martin Emeka, moved a motion to call for regulation of fares as commuters face hardships during the seasons.

The motion was titled ‘Urgent need to put a stop to arbitrary increase in transportation fare during festive periods, with specific reference to land transport’.

Moving the motion, Emeka said, “The House notes that the recent arbitrary hike in transport fares across the country is becoming a tradition, with the most recent where the obnoxious increment is painfully hitting the land transportation, thereby, compounding the hardship situation across the board as the Yuletide draws near.

“The development is becoming a national pandemic, where commuters are decrying that the arbitrary hike in fares in some cases had reached almost 100 per cent, barely a week to the Christmas and more as the days go by, a situation that is also viewed to be worsening the economic situation in the country.”

The lawmaker noted that the Yuletide season was associated with a lot of travelling, being the longest holiday season, which triggers a proportionate movement of people from one destination to the other.

According to him, such ‘obnoxiously arbitrary’ increases sometimes have nothing to do with the economic indices or the reality on ground but a by-product of the ‘greedy discretion of the park managers who decide the prices depending on turnout of the day, which is nothing short of gross insensitivity, occasioning economic sabotage.

Adopting the motion, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Transport to put modalities in place to monitor the activities of transport operators across the country especially during the Yuletide.

The House also mandated its Committee on Transport to interface with relevant agencies in ensuring that such seasonal arbitrariness came to an end.