Passengers urge Niger Transport Authority to improve services
By Rita Iliya
Passengers using the services of the Niger State Transport Authority (NSTA) have called on the company to improve its service delivery to meet the yearning of the people.
Some of the passengers who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Tuesday in Minna, decried the decline in the company’s service delivery.
They said that the incessant delay being witnessed by passengers at the terminal and as well as the use of worn-out and rickety vehicles were becoming worrisome.
Adamu Salihu, a passenger, told NAN that he had booked a day earlier to travel to Bauchi and was asked to be at the park before 6:30 a.m.
“I got to the park since 6:30 a.m., this is 8:30 a.m. and we have not even seen a vehicle going to our destination and nobody has spoken to us.
“If not that I have already paid, I would have gone to another park to board a commercial vehicle. I don’t think with this experience I will patronise the park next time,” he said.
Usman Aliyu, another passenger traveling to Gombe said that they gave him 6 a.m. to be at the park, however, as at 8 a.m. they were yet to commence the journey.
He said the delay might be due to low inflow of passengers, adding that many people could not afford to travel long distance due to the present economic situation.
“Nowadays, people don’t travel as much as they used to do because of the high cost of transportation which is probably the cause of our journey being delayed,” he said.
He called on the state government to upgrade the park to regain the confidence of passengers, adding that people prefer to patronise to the park due to the subsidised transport fares.
“I paid N12,000 to Gombe, but if you go to other private motorparks you will pay nothing less than N20,000. The difference alone is supposed to attract customers.
“However, because most people are satisfied with the services, they don’t mind paying high to get better services,” he said.
Taiwo Akanbi, traveling to Ilorin, also shared the same thought with other passengers and urged the government to increase the fleet of vehicles in the company in order to meet the need of passengers.
Reacting, Alh. Mohammed Bobi, Manager, Tunga Terminal of NSTA, said that the delay were sometimes caused by passengers’ failure to arrive early to the park and slow inflow of passengers, which affects take off time.
“Our vehicles always take off as early as 6 a.m. but the flow of passengers has greatly reduced thereby affecting our time schedules.
“We have buses that takes fourteen passengers, but you will find out only seven or 10 passengers will be on ground, taking off when passengers are not complete will make us to lose.
“But if passengers are patient enough, we will serve them well and we are trying our best to provide good services for our customers,” he said.
He said that NSTA operates various routes across the country with subsidised transport rates, adding that where other commercial vehicles charge N10,000 and N18,000, NSTA charges N7,000 and N13,000.
Meanwhile NAN correspondent observed that unlike in the past where several number of vehicles convey passengers to states like Lagos, Kano, Kastina, Gombe and Jos daily, it had reduced to only one vehicle per day to these routes, living so many passengers with no option than to use other motorparks. (NAN)
