Commuters may heave a sigh of relief on Monday if the proposed talks between the leadership of the Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria and the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management end on a positive note.
The state government, JDWAN members, Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria and the parks management held a meeting at Alausa, Lagos, presided over by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Sola Giwa.
The meeting was to resolve the seven-day protest embarked upon by JDWAN members against alleged extortion, and harassment by officials of the parks and management formerly the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Lagos State chapter.
In a statement announcing the protest which ended today (Sunday), JDWAN national leader, Abiodun Akintade, stated that the affected members were drivers of mini-buses, coaster buses, Mazda buses, T4, LT, Ford, and cars. Our correspondent, who monitored the protest for four days, observed that normal activities took place in most of the motor parks.
In a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Saturday, Akintade stated that after the Friday tripartite meeting, the state government directed that a meeting should be held on Monday (tomorrow) between the JDWAN and the parks and garages management to amicably resolve the issue.
Akintade stated that JDWAN was an amalgamation of the drivers’ welfare association; a joint arm of individual registered transport welfare groups, noting that some of them had yet to register.
He added, “The meeting with the agberos will hold on Monday after which we will know the next line of action. We will give them a week to meet our demands. The JDWAN doesn’t have parks and part of our demands is for the agberos to return to their parks, collect only the acceptable N800 ticket assigned by the state government and desist from extortion on the roads. We cannot keep working like an elephant and eating like an ant. These are our simple demands.
“We concluded a meeting with the representatives of the state government on Friday and agreed to give them a week to deliberate on the issue. We will wait till November 13 for them to put their acts together and meet our demands. If that fails, we will embark on another protest. Our demands are not ambiguous; all we want is for them to obey the May 2022 court order released where our demands have been highlighted.”
The Lagos State Government and transportation stakeholders in January this year signed a Memorandum of Understanding for daily collection of levies from commercial drivers at parks and garages in the state. The Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo, noted that the N800 levy covers money for the local government, clearing waste from motor parks paid to the Ministry of Transportation, Lagos State Waste Management Authority and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency