By Amos Aar
THE 10-DAY nationwide protest in most states of the federation against hunger and bad governance has dealt a devastating blow on the Benue Links Transport Company Ltd, even as the mass action has been shunned in Benue in response to the pleas of Governor Hyacinth Alia to Benue citizens not to protest.
Briefing journalists in his office on Wednesday, the General Manager (GM), Benue Links Company Ltd, Alexander Fanafa, lamented that although the protest was not joined in Benue, the services and revenue of the state-owned company have been affected drastically because there has been low movement to and from other states where the protest which began on August 1, 2024 was still taking place.
Asked how much revenue was lost within the period, Fanafa, who declined to disclose the amount, said their priority was the safety and comfort of travelers in line with Governor Alia’s vision rather than to augment interest.
“Benue Links Nigeria Ltd is not operating only in Benue State, it operates across most of the states of the federation out of the thirty-six (36) States including the FCT. So, whether the protest didn’t hold here in Benue, it held somewhere and there were a lot of fears.
“Most of the customers did not travel. So, it really, really affected the transport business and so it also affected Benue Links Nigeria Ltd because most parts of the country were not able to travel for fear of what may happen. Who knows whether people would become annoyed and become violent?
“In some states of the federation, Benue Links vehicles were trapped there because they couldn’t travel out of those places because the protest turned violent. Such places like Kano, our vehicles were packed there for more than 3 days, they couldn’t travel out until the tension calmed down before some of them moved out of that place.
“In Jos, we still have a curfew, our vehicles are still there. The business manager in Jos has been making frantic efforts to ensure that those vehicles that the curfew affect them in Jos are safe in those places.
“When you go to places like Yenogoa, Warri and whatever, you become very careful because you cannot contend the security architecture of the country, so you don’t know what will happen. Business became very difficult and we were unable to move outside the state like two days to examine the situation and watch what is happening and see what the responses of people and this protest would look like before we hit the roads,” Fanafa said.
Although there has been an intra-state movement according to him, filling stations were shutdown and there was scarcity of the product, compelling Benue Links to buy fuel at exorbitant cost and operating at loss.
“The fuel that we bought at exorbitant rate was now more than what we were loading. Yet, we have to move because if we did not allow those vehicles to move with people and then allow people to remain here without means of transportation whereas other people from outside could not travel fear of the unknown, and if Benue Links did not allow their vehicles to travel within the state, maybe the crisis which the governor was persuading the people of Benue not to join would have erupted”, Fanafa explained.
He attributed the decision of Benue people to shun the protest to the good works of Governor Hyacinth Alia in the state.
“What I know is that the people of Benue State responded to the persuasion of His Excellency the executive governor of Benue State that there is no reason for the protest. If you really have problems, bring it to the round table to deal with it.
“But more to that, as far as Benue State is concerned, we have never had it as good as this and so, the people of Benue State, even without being told, would have appreciated the position of the governor by shelving all these protests because of what we have seen the governor doing.
“He is doing so much and he is doing just our expectation. In fact, even more than our expectations. Therefore, there was no reason for us to join the protest so that some hoodlums would hijack the protest to destroy the good projects he is doing. That is the first point I’m talking about.
“The second point is that most of the other hardships that people are talking about as re not domiciled in Benue state, these are national issues. So, we feel that in Benue, while our governor is doing so much, we will allow the federal government to take decisions on other ones and see how our state will key into the implementation of same”, he stated.
