Lagos commuters got stranded during their morning voyage on Monday after they were suddenly informed that some public transporters were on strike.

Drivers said that the strike was in response to extortion of drivers by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and state-run task force.

A bus driver told FIJ that, although he acknowledged the strike action, he was unaware of it until Monday morning.

“It’s a strike. I cannot even drive back to Isheri where my garage is,” Baba Hafusa, a commercial driver, told this reporter on Monday morning.

“Our road transport union leaders had said that they wanted to go on strike last week, but it never happened. They suspended plans to go on strike last week and we continued working.

“If I had known that the strike would begin today, I would have stayed at home. I didn’t know about this strike today. There’s nothing I can do now.”

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Just before the driver was free to talk to this reporter, his own passengers had formed a hostile mob around him. They wanted their money back.

One of the commuters was exchanging heated words with Baba Hafusa.

“Are you mad? I am an elderly person, if you think you are elderly. I am older than you are. You must answer to me and return our money,” the oldest passenger, an angry man with grey hair, said at a point.

The passengers refused to let Baba Hafusa go without refunds. Both driver and passengers eventually agreed to a 60 percent refund of the transport fare paid for an Isheri–Ikeja trip.

“He didn’t tell us that they were on strike. We boarded this bus from Isheri early this morning, and now we are running late,” one of the passengers said.

Baba Hafusa’s passengers were not the only ones stranded on the way to Ikeja. FIJ saw a multitude of commuters lining the Iyana-Ipaja–Ikeja expressway. Some resorted to begging private cars and strangers to give them a lift, but there were only a handful of private cars stopping for hundreds of passengers to fight for a few seats.

A ride from the expressway to Ikeja showed large groups of people trekking towards Ikeja. A few people opted for motorcycles that suddenly appeared on the BRT lanes in the middle of the expressway. These motorcycles were forbidden by state law from operating in that area but people chose to break state law than trek to the Lagos capital.

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“It’s the task force; they want to ruin our lives with exorbitant levies,” Baba Hafusa told this reporter.

“The money they are taking from us is too much and we have to manage the very costly price of petrol. We cannot endure this situation any longer.”

According to Baba Hafusa and two other commercial drivers, Lagos drivers decided to embark on strikes in various local government areas of the state due to heavy taxation and levies imposed on them.