Funso Doherty, governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Lagos State, has accused the state government of lacking the political will to tackle street touts popularly known as agberos.

Doherty made the allegation on Sunday during a governorship debate in Lagos, where he blamed vested interests for frustrating efforts to modernise the state’s public transportation system.

He said thousands of rickety buses remained in operation despite the need for a more efficient and modern transport network, questioning why successive efforts to reform the sector had taken so long.

“Our public transportation system is not modernised. Thousands of rickety buses are moving around,” he said.

“We must ask ourselves: are these what our people deserve? Why has it taken so long to modernise public transportation?”

The NDC candidate argued that the continued reliance on small buses was sustained by an ecosystem of vested interests.

“In my opinion, the lack of a modern transportation system is not by accident. There are vested interests in operating the bus system the way it is,” he said.

“Many small buses are chaoticatically operated because there is an ecosystem around it.

“Many of us understand this notion of the agbero system that people talk about. There is no political will to deal with that problem.”