Commuters stranded as protesting students lay siege on BRT in Ikorodu

Thousands of passengers were stranded at Garage Bus Stop, Ikorodu on Thursday as students of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) disrupted activities of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) over the refusal of the management, Primero, to provide them with buses to Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.

The students had requested for the buses to convey them to Alausa for an audience with the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu over the lingering strike of the non-academic staff of the institution which has paralysed academic activities in the last six months.

Some of the students who spoke to journalists blamed the government for being insensitive to their plight and for not taking steps to end the strike of the non-academic staff.

As early as 6.00 a.m., the students in their hundreds took over the BRT garage in Ikorodu and prevented the buses from taking off after loading.

As a result, thousands of passengers who had bought tickets as early as 5.00 a..m after the early buses had departed for various destinations, were stranded at the garage.

The students parked a red bus which registration number was covered at the exit of the garage to prevent BRT buses from moving out.

At the front of the bus, they tied a banner with inscriptions urging the state governor to intervene in the matter of the non-academic staff of the institution urgently so that they could commence academic activities again

The protest left several of the BRT buses coming in from the Mainland parked inside the inward corridor as they could not access the garage.

The students who wave branches of trees with leaves were seen singing solidarity songs.

Other commercial buses, otherwise known as ‘Tata’ took advantage of the situation and hike fares to various destinations as they charged N200, N300 and N400 to Ketu, Oshodi and Lagos as against normal charges of N150, N200 and N300 respectively.