COVID-19: UNN students travelling home stranded at Nsukka motor parks

Students

By Hilary Akalugwu

Nsukka (Enugu State), March 23, 2020 (NAN) Some students from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) travelling home following the closure of the university over the spread of the Coronavirus were stranded in some motor parks in Nsukka town.

Some of the students who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Nsukka on Tuesday said they had stayed between two and three hours in the park without seeing any bus to board.

Chinanye Udengu from the Department of Economics that was traveling to Oko in Anambra State said she had stayed up to three hours without seeing a bus to board.

“What we are told by those working here is that we should wait as the bus will soon come.

“My concern is that more passengers are joining us and the queue is getting longer,” she said.

Maurice Nduka, Department of Public Administration going to Owerri, the Imo State capital said he had waited for over two hours but no bus to board.

“When I came and saw a long queue of passengers, I suspected the transport company does not have enough buses.

“If I had boarded a bus the very moment I came, by now I would have been closer to Owerri.

“My only happiness is that there is no increase in transport fare, what they are collecting before from Nsukka to Owerri is still the same amount now,” he said.

Peter Adango travelling from Nsukka to Yenegoa the Bayelsa State capital said he had spent one and half hours in the park waiting for a bus to board.

Adango said he would board a bus going to Port Harcourt since there was no straight bus to Yenegoa, adding that in Port Harcourt, he would enter another bus to Yenegoa.

“Only God knows when I will reach my home in Yenegoa today,” he lamented.

He however, commended government for the closure of schools in the country which he said would go a long way in controlling the dreaded coronavirus.

A manager of one of the motor parks in Nsukka town, who pleaded anonymity, said he was making frantic efforts to provide buses that would take them to their various destinations.

“I promise you in the next 45 minutes, you will not see any queue of passengers in this park.

“I have made arrangement for buses that will carry all passengers,” he said.

NAN reports that UNN campus had been deserted as majority of students travelled home over the weekend and the remaining were seen on Monday with their travelling bags leaving the campus.

It would be recalled that Federal Government had on Friday March 20, directed the shutdown of all federal schools in the country as part of measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic, (NAN)

HOA/ESAN/MNA

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Edited by Abiodun Esan/Maureen Atuonwu