Some Lagos boat commuters woke up on Monday morning and headed to the ferry terminals to discover that fares had gone up astronomically from the initial N3,500 to N4,500 at the Ebute Ikorodu for a 22-minute trip to Lekki, news.ng reports.
Commuters took to the microblogging platform Twitter, now X, to vent their frustrations.
According to conversations on X monitored by this news medium, the reason for the sharp increase was a result of the hike in the price of fuel amid the ongoing geopolitical tension in Iran, disrupting shipments of petroleum products.
An X user, Engr. Olami, who commutes to his place of work using ferry services, complained that private ferry operators intentionally hiked the price.
According to him, “The ferry terminal in Ebute Ikorodu did most ppl dirty this morning, from 3,500 to 4k still intentionally delayed us for good 3hrs just to increase it to 4,500, for a trip of 22minutes
Last, I went back home to pick up my car, and I spent 42minutes to Lekki.
They can hold their ferry.”
Another user, Ibukun Oyenusi, who is a ferry operator, responded to Engr. Olami explained that operators cannot return on an empty boat until they are filled with passengers due to the hike in fuel prices.
According to him, some users classified as prepaid members pay to and fro for the whole month.
He said, “Dear Engr. Olami,
I am writing to you as a boat owner at the Ipakodo Ferry Terminal.
Firstly, let me apologise for the delay; it was simply caused by the fact that the boats cannot return empty to load passengers due to the high cost of fuel.
“Secondly, we did this when we started the ferry business. We called them prepaid members. They literally pay to and fro for the whole month.
It works then, but things have changed now.
Anyway, we are open to change and new ideas.”
Another user, Adekunle Adegbite, countered the operator, saying that most of the boats intentionally delay the return trip.
He claimed, “The lie is the boats cannot return empty. These boats hide in Majidun, which is just 5 minutes from Ebute, but they will tell you the boats are coming from Lekki.”
Meanwhile, the operators have called on conversion centres of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to extend their operations to boat owners.
