'Stop carrying cash in our buses'- Luxury bus operators warn passengers

Following increased attacks by robbers on various routes across the country, long distance luxury bus (or luxurious bus as they are called in Nigeria) operators have advised their passengers to always avoid boarding the vehicles with huge cash in order not to tempt the criminals. Rather than carry large sums of money on them, especially during night journeys, intending passengers should take advantage of the various means of transferring money electronically and keep just enough to take care of their travel expenses.




The luxury bus operators who spoke through the managers of some leading luxury bus transport firms at the popular Upper Iweka in Onitsha, Anambra state, enjoined the travelers to embrace the use of drafts and various e-banking innovations, including automated teller machine (ATM), point of sale (POS) and other internet-enabled platforms in their transactions. According to the spokesman of the managers’ forum, Tony Ogbonna, the enlightenment campaign became necessary due to the frequent cases of armed robbery involving luxury buses lately, especially at night, which result in human and material losses to both the passengers and the transporters. “This is not restricted to any particular route. Our buses plying Abuja-Lagos or going to the east from Abuja; those playing Lagos-Shagamu-Ore-Benin-Onitsha-Port Harcourt; and those on Aba-Onitsha-Lagos route, are all targeted by the robbers who are usually merciless in their attacks”, Ogbonna said.

Preventive measures

 Last year, the umbrella union of long distance bus transporters,      Association of Luxury Bus Owners of Nigeria (ALBON) counselled the public on the need to always travel cashless, enjoining them to avail themselves of new methods in modern banking in their transactions to avoid being easy preys to the robbers. The association had lamented that regardless of its preventive measures, like discouraging passengers from boarding with excess cash, the criminals had continued to lay siege on members’ vehicles on the erroneous assumption that passengers, particularly traders, were still in the habit of travelling with a lot of money in their possession. Interestingly, the association’s statement clearly informed the gangsters of the transporters’ no-cash policy.

This post originally appeared on Vanguard