Kwara begins free transport for tertiary students, staff amid fuel scarcity

The Kwara government says it has commenced its free transport palliatives for students and staff of some tertiary institutions in the state.

According to NAN, Bello Mubarak, the special assistant to the governor on students affairs, said the free bus ride was necessary to ease the suffering of students of the affected campuses amid the difficulty imposed by the scarcity of fuel.

“As you can see, students are getting into the buses to go to schools for their daily studies,” he said on Monday while supervising the exercise across the designated motor parks in Ilorin.

“The days to carry out the exercise will continue as long as the directive lapses.

“We don’t have a directive to stop it any time soon. We will continue as it is. It is cost-free for the students and staff of those schools.”

On his part, Orire Ibrahim, the governor’s spokesperson on transport, said the intervention became necessary in order to ease the hardship already being faced by students.

“We are here to supervise the government’s free transport palliatives to students of higher institutions in Kwara State such as Unilorin, Kwara Polytechnic and KWASU in Malete,” he said.

“It is an important step by Gov. AbdulRazaq to support the students because of the hardship of getting fuel.”

Some students who were present during the exercise appreciated the administration for being responsive and sensitive to their plights.

Suleiman Olanrewaju, a student of the University of Ilorin and member of the school transport committee, said the initiative came in handy for them.

“Yes, there is government’s intervention buses all over here. I think we have four of Soludero buses. Everything here is free,” he said.

“It comes in handy for us because this place is always messy. For us to see Soludero buses here and they are even free, we thank the government for the palliatives.”