LAMATA cautions commuters against paying fares into personal accounts

The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), yesterday, advised commuters to only use authorised bank accounts to pay for transport services.

The agency’s Consultant, Corporate Communication, Kolawole Ojelabi, disclosed this in a statement.

According to him, the agency was aware of a viral video in which a group of ladies claimed that an official asked that payment for a train ride be made to a personal bank account.

This followed their inability to make payment via available Point of Sale (PoS) machines as a result of network downtime.

Ojelabi explained that any ride on regulated public transport in Lagos State is paid for using the Cowry Card.

According to him, to load a Cowry Card, commuters may either use a PoS machine, load money from their personal account to a wallet linked to the Card, or to a designated collecting account by the service provider, Touch and Pay Limited.

He emphasised that each train station has a unique account number. For instance, the Marina Station’s account would read ‘Cowry Marina’ to enable the provider to determine which station payment was made from.

“No transfer should be made to any personal account under any guise,” the consultant warned.

While noting that the state government appreciates efforts to ensure probity in all official transactions, Ojelabi said the claim in the viral video does not define or represent the services offered on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Blue Line system from Marina to Mile 2.

He appealed that in any case of infraction in the system, the general public should send an email to [email protected] or call/SMS/WhatsApp +234-909-952-628