Protests rocks Delta, Ekiti as fuel, new naira scarcity bite harder

Angry youths, students, motorists and traders on Wednesday took to the streets in Delta and Ekiti states to protest the fuel and naira scarcity that has caused hardship for many Nigerians in recent weeks.

In Ekiti, students of the state university in Ado Ekiti protested the fuel scarcity-induced hike in transport fares.

The students, who reside in Ado Ekiti and Iworoko Ekiti, said they could not afford the N400 fare to school, which was a 100 per cent increase in transportation fare.

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They barricaded Iworoko Road which leads to the campus and also occupied the university gate to ensure that nobody accessed the school.

However, trouble started when the mini-bus operators plying the school from Ado Ekiti insisted that the N200 fare that was previously charged as well as the sitting arrangement in the vehicles were no longer feasible in view of the scarcity of fuel and the downtime caused by queues at petrol stations.

The President of the Student Union Government, Dotun Ogunsanya, who justified the students’ action, said, “What you have seen today is a reaction to the change in fare to and from school from N200 to N400 by the commercial transport operators.”