Passengers were on Wednesday stranded in Benin as intra-city commercial drivers grounded operations over the increase in the daily commercial vehicle ticket fee by the Edo Government.
Passengers had to resort to trekking due to the protest that caught many residents of the ancient city unawares.
Irate members of the transport unions were seen discharging passengers on board commercial vehicles in strategic areas across the city.
One of the transporters explained that the state government on Tuesday unilateraly increased the ticket fee from N800 per day to N2000. This, he said, did not go down well with members of all the transport unions in the state.
“You will have to trek since government wants to kill us. We are asked to be paying N2,000 daily for ticket as against the N800 we paid previously”, he said.
An angry passengers, told newsmen that it was a height of insensitivity on the part of the state government to increase the fee amidst the prevailing harsh economic situation.