The Federal Government’s 50 per cent transportation rebate palliative got a further boost yesterday in Abuja among the sector’s major players.
A total of 128 road transport passengers on northern routes received a refund of 50 per cent of their fares from one of the groups monitoring the palliative’s implementation.
Last week, the Federal Government announced the transportation rebate as part of President Bola Tinubu administration’s intervention and relief for Nigerians to reduce the harsh economic situation in the country and to enable Nigerians travel to different parts of the country to celebrate the Christmas and the New Year festivities with their loved ones.
The transport palliative, which saw road transport being slashed by 50 per cent and zero fares for train services, showed that road transport rebate would be applicable to 128 luxury bus service routes nationwide.
A statement yesterday in Abuja by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Olujimi Oyetomi, said the Association of Luxury Bus Owners (ALBON) extended part of its mandate to passengers traveling with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), returning 50 per cent of their fares to them.
“Implementing the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for 50 per cent discount on transport fares for Nigerians during the Yuletide got a serious boost, especially as 128 travellers from Abuja, but bound for destinations in the North – Gombe, Bauchi, Yola and Maiduguri – were freighted to their destinations by paying only half of the transport fares charged for each of their destinations, as monitored by the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMT) Situation Room Monitoring Team on Christmas Day, December 25, 2023.
“The North-bound passengers got immediate reimbursement of 50 per cent of the transport fares paid upon boarding their vehicles by the Chairman of the Association of Luxury Bus Owners (ALBON) Task Force on the Implementation of the discount, Chief Clement Okuefuna, who personally conducted the disbursement in cash at the Area 1 Motor Park from where most of the buses, which conveyed the passengers, took off on Christmas Day, December 25, 2023.”
“Since the routes to the North were mostly serviced by low-capacity vehicles, as opposed to high-capacity luxury vehicles, ALBON has initiated a work arrangement with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), FCT Chapter, to service the routes. ALBON also made good its promise to publicise venues for boarding the vehicles where passengers could be reimbursed 50 per cent of the fares paid.
“Starting from as early as 5 a.m on Christmas Day, four 16-seater capacity buses began loading, their passengers given back half of the fares paid and dispatched to Gombe from Area 1 Park in Abuja.
“One 16-seater capacity bus was loaded with travellers who also got the President Tinubu’s discount of 50 per cent and dispatched for Bauchi; others loaded and headed to Yola while yet another loaded and headed to Maiduguri.
“The last 16-seater passenger bus got its passengers getting a refund of half of the transport fares paid back to them and heading to Bauchi and Maiduguri rounded off the operation at Area 1 Motor Park, Abuja.
“Thus, eight buses loaded with 16 passengers each, totalling 128 cheerful Nigerians who got refunded with half of the transport fares they paid, courtesy of the directive and provisions made for the special period of Christmas (2023) and New Year (palliative ending on January, 4, 2024).
“It was, therefore, no wonder to hear the politically conscious northern Nigerians cheering and chanting: ‘Jagaban, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 4 Plus 4’, even when the intention of President Tinubu in directing the transport palliative wasn’t towards a political end but to renew the hopes for a better Nigeria,” the statement said.
