Some transporters and traders in Abuja have taken advantage of the Easter holiday to increase prices of goods and fares to some parts of the country, correspondent gathered.
A visit to some of the parks in the Federal Capital showed that the transport fares to some parts of the country had increased while others remained stable.
The fares to places like Aba, Owerri, Enugu and Port Harcourt had increased while the fares for Ibadan,? Kano and Zaria remained the same.
For Lagos, while the fares increased in some parks , others have not changed.
Mr Jude Ngwu, the Manager at the Peace Park, one of the transport companies told NAN that the reason for stability in the Lagos fare at his park was because the number of people coming into Abuja from Lagos was commensurate with the number leaving Abuja for Lagos.
Ngwu, however, said there were no passengers coming into Abuja from Aba, Owerri, Port Harcout and Enugu hence the need to increase the fares to prevent operating at a loss.
At the Peace Park the transport fare to Lagos was N4, 000 and had remained so.
For Aba, the fare is now N5, 300 as against N3, 300; Owerri is now N5, 000 as against N3, 000 while Port Harcourt which used to be N4, 000 is now N6,000.
However, observed that the number of passengers in the park was scanty and Ngwu explained that majority of the passengers travelled on Friday.
He also said that transporters usually faced difficulties of insufficient vehicles for travellers during Easter.
According to him, unlike the Christmas period where people travelled over a period of about one month, the Easter break was shorter and so more people tended to travel at the same time.
He assured that the fares would stabilise after the Easter celebration.
At the Utako Park, Mr Moshood Abuga told our correspondent that there were very few passengers travelling out of Abuja today as the majority of passengers had travelled on Friday.
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Mrs Imade Imoisele, a passenger on one of the few buses travelling to Lagos, said that she was paying N5, 200 as against the usual N3, 200.
Meanwhile, at the Utako and Wuse Markets, prices of some food stuff remained the same while others had been increased.
A medium size life chicken which usually sold between N1,200 and N1,500 is now being sold at between N2,000 and N2,800.
While a kilogram of frozen chicken which previously sold for between N700 and N750 is now sold at N800.
A small basket of onions which was previously sold at between N300 and N400? now went for between N600 and N800.
Mrs Rebecca Achini, however, assured that the prices would come down after the Easter celebration.
In addition, travellers on Abuja-Lokoja highway were held up in a traffic jam for hours.
Some of the travellers told our correspondent in a telephone interview that the situation was mainly due to “impatient driving” as well as security check points on the road.
Miss Nkwodimma Ngozi in recounting her experience said the hold-up was “terrible” haven stayed at a spot for three hours.
“It is not easy, in fact we have been at a spot for three hours and the movement was stagnant,’’ she said.
?Ngozi, an Owerri-bound passenger, said she left Abuja at 7 a.m but arrived Lokoja at 10:05 p.m.
She said men of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other security operatives tried to control the situation, but that commuters failed to cooperate.
However, a traveller to Owerri, Mr Ifeanyi Uzodinma said his movement was smooth as there was no traffic jam on the way.
Uzodinma said he left Abuja at 5 a.m. and arrived Enugu by noon.
There was beehive of activities in the federal capital territory to usher in Easter.
?People were thrilled with music and other stage performances.
Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter to commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross.?