The word 'agbero' is an household name in Nigeria especially southwestern part of the country. they can also be referred to as area boys, touts hoodlums among others. These people as become a thorn in the flesh of commuters and motorists on our roads as they are considered as bunch of nuisance on lagos roads especially.
Agbero is a toruba parlance for those usually able bodied youths who load and scout for passengers for commercial buses at assigned motor parks, meanwhile they now operate outside parks situating themselves at all the bus stops enforcing all sorts of levies, dues and charges on commercial bus drivers.
Agberos with their dubious act, have different names and tags for money and dues they colkect from these commuters.Names like money for booking, loading, visitors due, money for security, morning morning, afternoon and evening among others.
Back to memory lane, agbero ce into existence through the establishment of NURTW by a set of jobless individuals to extort money from motorist which their function was suppose to be helping commuters load passengers into their vehicles in place of conductors.
NURTW came into existence back then in 1978.created by National party of NIgeria in the southwest when the National party of Nigeria wanted to wrestle power from unity party of Nigeria (UPN) at all cost and the late chief MKO Abiola backed the NURTW by funding the then newly formed union.
Also more power is being given to the agberos through the civilian government who use them as a political thugs and by making them an appendage of the government, instead of being an affiliate of NLC.
Moreso , the manace of agbero goes beyond extorting and forceful collectionof money from commuters, okada riders and tricycle operators. They contribute majorly to the dirty environment with their ill-mannered behaviour.
It is pertinent to note that the petty crimes and sometimes violent offences by the so called "area boys" to acquire resources, generally cash in the urban main businesses and crowded areas, have disturbed the civil society and defied the civic authority. Drug abuse among them has been variously reported as the cause of delinquent behaviour and crime.
Among the agberos are both the sellers and buyers of illegal drugs; this drug use has been fingered as the cause of further crime in Nigeria especially Lagos State which is the centre where most of their activities takes place.
They also engage in vandalism by vandalising vehicles which the driver refuses to comply with them by damaging the windscreen, wiper, side mirror among others which at the end disfigured the vehicle. Sometimes refusal or delay to pay the toll amounts leads to severe beating of the conductors and drivers by group of agberos lurking around bus stops to monitor the collection of money.
The fear of agberos on lagos roads is the beginning of progress for commercial bus operators. Many commuters went to the level of carrying mopols, naval officers, navy, soldiers to avoid stupid act of the agberos and to freely move without being disturbed by these miscreants.
Activities of these miscreants has no doubt affect prices of goods and services especially transport fares which however makes the country not to have a price control laws as it is supposed to operate as a free market economy where the forces of supply and demands determine the price.
Nonetheless, efforts of government to sennitise the manace of agberos is commendable but we the masses encourage the authorities to put more measures in place so as to curtail the bad act which these people displays on our roads and parks so as to make life better for the citizens.
Agbero is a toruba parlance for those usually able bodied youths who load and scout for passengers for commercial buses at assigned motor parks, meanwhile they now operate outside parks situating themselves at all the bus stops enforcing all sorts of levies, dues and charges on commercial bus drivers.
Agberos with their dubious act, have different names and tags for money and dues they colkect from these commuters.Names like money for booking, loading, visitors due, money for security, morning morning, afternoon and evening among others.
Back to memory lane, agbero ce into existence through the establishment of NURTW by a set of jobless individuals to extort money from motorist which their function was suppose to be helping commuters load passengers into their vehicles in place of conductors.
NURTW came into existence back then in 1978.created by National party of NIgeria in the southwest when the National party of Nigeria wanted to wrestle power from unity party of Nigeria (UPN) at all cost and the late chief MKO Abiola backed the NURTW by funding the then newly formed union.
Also more power is being given to the agberos through the civilian government who use them as a political thugs and by making them an appendage of the government, instead of being an affiliate of NLC.
Moreso , the manace of agbero goes beyond extorting and forceful collectionof money from commuters, okada riders and tricycle operators. They contribute majorly to the dirty environment with their ill-mannered behaviour.
It is pertinent to note that the petty crimes and sometimes violent offences by the so called "area boys" to acquire resources, generally cash in the urban main businesses and crowded areas, have disturbed the civil society and defied the civic authority. Drug abuse among them has been variously reported as the cause of delinquent behaviour and crime.
Among the agberos are both the sellers and buyers of illegal drugs; this drug use has been fingered as the cause of further crime in Nigeria especially Lagos State which is the centre where most of their activities takes place.
They also engage in vandalism by vandalising vehicles which the driver refuses to comply with them by damaging the windscreen, wiper, side mirror among others which at the end disfigured the vehicle. Sometimes refusal or delay to pay the toll amounts leads to severe beating of the conductors and drivers by group of agberos lurking around bus stops to monitor the collection of money.
The fear of agberos on lagos roads is the beginning of progress for commercial bus operators. Many commuters went to the level of carrying mopols, naval officers, navy, soldiers to avoid stupid act of the agberos and to freely move without being disturbed by these miscreants.
Activities of these miscreants has no doubt affect prices of goods and services especially transport fares which however makes the country not to have a price control laws as it is supposed to operate as a free market economy where the forces of supply and demands determine the price.
Nonetheless, efforts of government to sennitise the manace of agberos is commendable but we the masses encourage the authorities to put more measures in place so as to curtail the bad act which these people displays on our roads and parks so as to make life better for the citizens.
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