Hundreds of passengers, mostly students going to different parts of the country were on Sunday stranded at motor parks in Sokoto metropolis.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the influx of passengers was as a result of the closure of schools and institutions sequel to the Federal Government directives aimed at curtailing the spread of Corona Virus.
NAN reports that high concentration of stranded passengers were seen at the popular mass transits garage (Tashar Alu) where state owned Sokoto State Transport Authority (SSTA) along with other states transport services were located.
Some students, Rafael Olusola, Maryam Bashir, Hammeed Aliyu and Hafsat Garba, told NAN that they were at the garage early in the morning, but no vehicles to board.
They said they want to travel to their various towns sequel to the closure of schools and have no option because they were asked to leave the hostels.
According to them, many passengers had left for other garages within the town searching for alternatives.
NAN reports that the situation were the same at Kwannawa and Sokoto Central Motor Park (Hajia Halima) although many vehicles were boarding, some passengers were still waiting.
When contacted, the Special Adviser to Gov. Aminu Tambuwal on SSTA, Alhaji Abdullahi Danjeka, told NAN that more than 10 buses had left the garage in different routes.
Danjeka said SSTA have conveyed passengers to Kaduna, Abuja, Kano, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara besides those going to Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa states.
He added that the state government had pegged the fare to ease the movement of people in Sokoto and those going to other states.
Danjeka explained that the fares remain stable as follows: Sokoto to Abuja N3,200, Sokoto to Kano for N2,000, Sokoto to Kaduna N2,000, Sokoto to Jos N3,200, Sokoto to Katsina for N2,000, Sokoto to Gusau for N1,000, Sokoto to Gombe for N4,000 and Sokoto to Niger for N3,200 only.
According to him, SSTA alternates services with other states owned transport services, noting that when SSTA load today, the next day others would load.
He said similar conditions applies to SSTA in other states based on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the operating states.
The Special Adviser further said arrangement was also made with state ministry of education and buses were dispatched to convey unity school students following the directives on Coronavirus spread. (NAN)