Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
Riders of tricycles in Kano yesterday shut down their operations, leaving many passengers stranded.
The tricycle operators have embarked on the industrial action to protest the new registration number imposed by Kano Road Traffic Agency, (KAROTA).
Customers and some business owners did not make it to the market as major markets in the ancient city of Kano commercial were also almost empty.
Auwalu Musa Sule, a businessman at the city’s major textile market, Kantin Kwari, told our reporter that some business owners did not open their shops as they could not make it to the market.
Jamilu Isyaku Dakata, a private school teacher, said: “Many of our pupils could not make it to school , especially those whose parents had no means of acquiring private mobility.”
Most streets in the city have been deserted and only private cars, buses, taxis, motorcycles, and trucks are plying the roads.
Hundreds of people resorted to trekking some kilometers to their destinations, exposing the city’s poor public transport service.
Malam Ali Yakubu, said he decided to trek from Dorayi quarters down to Kwari Market as he waited for more than two hours without getting a commercial vehicle to transport him to the market.
“I have to embark on trekking to the market about four kilometers and I don’t think I will get a vehicle back to my house in the evening,” he said.
THISDAY gathered that Yusuf Maitama Sule University has been compelled to postpone exams that were scheduled for yesterday.
Many students, especially of Bayero University Kano missed morning lectures as they found it difficult to get vehicles to take them to the school.
The students, who were left stranded at Mandawari Junction, lamented how they spent hours waiting for vehicles to take them to the school.
“It is a difficult day for us as we have just resumed a new session. So, we will be waiting here to see if we would be lucky to get a vehicle, maybe commercial or private. The Managing Director of Kano state road traffic agency (KAROTA), Mr. Bappa Babba Danagundi said: ” No going back for renewal of yearly license payment for the tricycle. “
