Lagos passengers stranded as BRT fuel suppliers stop service

Hundred of passengers heading moving towards Lagos Island trying to use the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit vehicles were on Thursday stranded over scarcity of buses caused by shortage of fuel supply for operation of the vehicles.

The situation was most pronounced on the Abule-Egba-Obalende route.

At the Abule-Egba BRT park, many BRT buses under Primero, one of the franchise holders operating the scheme, were seen parked with no driver inside them.

According to some of the passengers, the BRT buses that were parked had no fuel in them.

A cross-section of the passengers who spoke with journalists explained that the problem started since Tuesday.

One of them said they had been finding it difficult to get BRT buses to CMS and Obalende since Tuesday, adding, “We heard that these buses that are parked here without drivers don’t have fuel in them because their owners are owing their fuel suppliers, who in turn cut off fuel supply to the buses.

“it’s unfortunate that this new initiative is already experiencing hitches. How long will this persist? Only God knows.”

Spokesperson for the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mr Kolawole Ojelabi, confirmed that one of the service providers, Primero, had problem with fuel suppliers.

He said, “The authority is working towards providing buses to fill the gap created by Primero. This has been on since Tuesday. Due to issues with its fuel suppliers, some BRT buses operated by Primero don’t have fuel supply. Primero runs a sizeable number of the BRT buses, and that is why the lack of fuel supply to their buses is affecting commuters.

“We have however sent some other buses managed by other franchise holders to fill in the gap. The issue should be resolved soon.”

Lagos State government had in August 2020 launched the 13.68km Oshodi-Abule Egba BRT corridor supervised by LAMATA. Until now, the initiative had brought a breath of fresh air to intra-state movement within the state.