By Ivwurie John

Pandemonium broke out yesterday morning at Ita-Oluwu boundary area of Lagos and Ogun states, when members of Road Transport Employment Association, RTEAN, National Union of Transport Road Workers, NUTRW, and cabs operators clashed.

Trouble started as a result of disagreement over increase in price of tickets issued by Shagamu Local Government to transporters that operate Ogijo-Ikorodu routes.

Commuters, yesterday, were stranded at Ogijo and Ita Oluwo areas of Lagos and Ogun states, respectively.

According to Mr. Adememo Sikiru, the Deputy Chairman of RTEAN, Odogunyan chapter, NUTRW and RTEAN in Ogun State said there was an increase in ticket prices of commercial buses and cars from N400 to N850, daily.

He said: “We demanded for the reasons for increment, but our Ogun State counterpart could not provide an answer. They asked for time to reply. Surprisingly, on Monday, the Ogun State chapter started selling the ticket at N850, without the consent of the Lagos chapter.”

Mr. Ani, a representative of cab drivers, said:”We are ready to pay the original N250 ticket price to the local government. But in most cases, the Area Boys (touts), popularly known as Agbero, increased the fare to thrice the official price.”

Reacting, Mr. Idowu Adebowale, a graduate of Political Science, who drives a cab, called on Lagos and Ogun states government to come to their aid and repair the damaged road, call Agbero to order and desist from illegal collection of dues for Obas and chairmen.

He claimed the dues were as high as N400, apart from the daily collection for local government.

As at 10:30a.m., the Divisional Police Officer, DPO in charge of Ogijo Police Station, had restored peace and invited all the parties involved to his office.