Anger as ATL transport company abandons passengers for 24 hours after vehicle broke down in Otukpo

Some travelers were left stranded in Otukpa in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State, on Wednesday, after an ATL company bus conveying passengers to Lagos from Gboko broke down in the town about 10am.

It was gathered that all efforts of the passengers to reach the management proved abortive as the phone lines were either not going through or being responded to. And when they eventually reached the company and launched complain, the replacement bus which the company claimed to have sent did not arrive and the bus was managed back to Otukpo Wednesday night with the passengers.

Some of the passengers on Thursday morning lamented that they were abandoned for over 24 hours, adding that ATL transport company claimed it has arranged for a bus to come all the way from Lagos to pick them at Otukpo but the bus was yet to arrived after 24 hours.

One of the passengers told newsmen that he was traveling to begin a new job he got in Lagos but right now he is sure of no longer getting that job as he was compulsorily supposed to resume today (Thursday).

An anonymous source from within the passengers said that the company knew the engine of the vehicle had just been worked on and was not fit for a long journey yet, but insisted on embarking on that journey.

The passengers called on the Ministry of Transportation, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and all other relevant agencies and stakeholders to look into the matter.

Efforts by our reporter to reach the Public Relations Unit of ATL Company as calls to the company’s telephone lines were not responded to.