The website of the Oyo State government-owned transport company, Pacesetter Transport Services, www.pacesettertransport.com.ng, is inaccessible.
This is just as the quality and standard of the Oyo State Travel Card (Pacesettee Omituntun Card), the rechargeable card used to board the buses, are allegedly low and fraudulent.
REPORTERS AT LARGE’s check of the site on StatShow indicated that the website was either offline or not yet registered.
“Sorry, but this website is either offline or not registered yet. Please try again later or check your input. Possible causes: The domain name is misspelt. The domain doesn’t exist. The website is offline,” StatShow stated.
StatShow is a website analysis tool that provides vital information about websites. Using mathematical and statistical methods, the website can estimate its value, advertisement earnings by market niche and category, traffic such as visitors and pageviews, and much more. StatShow also provides social media and internet safety reputation analysis.
REPORTERS AT LARGE gathered that the website developer allegedly paid for a year-long hosting plan. However, StatShow’s report did not indicate this; instead, it suggested that the “website is either offline or not registered yet.” This made it impossible to get any information about the company without visiting the offices at Old Testing Ground, Eleyele, Ibadan.
As of the time this report was completed, the state transport company’s official Facebook page had 315 likes and 361 followers, while its official Twitter account had eight followers and 386 followers.
Meanwhile, users have continued to condemn the quality and standard of the Oyo State Travel Card (Pacesettee Omituntun Card), the rechargeable card to board the bus.
REPORTERS AT LARGE gathered that users cannot ascertain the amount loaded on the card and the balance therein, except an transport company official tells them, after checking for it on their system. Therefore, users can only rely on the information provided by the transport company’s agent about the money loaded on the card and the balance, as there is no provision for users to confirm on their own.
One of the users, Adetunji Olawuyi, who spoke with REPORTERS AT LARGE lamented that “the card was poorly produced. It was merely a piece of two pieces of laminated paper cards with a chip in between and gummed. It cannot identify the owner in case of any loss.”
Another user, who spoke with REPORTERS AT LARGE on the condition of anonymity at the Ojo Park, said, “You just paid the attendants at the park, who would credit the card, but we can’t confirm if the credit is what we paid for or not. This gives room for fraud and cheating. The state government should be more transparent about the transport system.”
All efforts to get the official position of the Oyo State Pacesetter Transport Services were unsuccessful, as the two numbers on the Oyo State Travel Card (Pacesettee Omituntun Card) did not go through. However, a message was sent to the two mobile numbers.
The message reads: “It has come to our notice that your organisation, Oyo State Pacesetter Transport Services, does not have a functional online domain.
“As a responsible media organisation rooted in the ethics of journalism, Reporters At Large wants to know what the official position of the Transport Company on this discovery is and what you are doing to effect a change.
“We would appreciate it if you could oblige us with this clarification before we go to the Press. Thanks.”
REPORTERS AT LARGE recalls that the Oyo State Pacesetter Transport Services boss, Hon. (Dr.) Dikko Salami, in an interview with Mayor Isaac Brown, on September 1, 2023, on Fresh FM, disclosed that the buses are soon transiting to digitalization. The production of the Pacesetter Omituntun Card could be part of the digitalisation of the state-owned transport company.
Omituntun 2.0 buses are part of Governor Seyi Makinde’s efforts to provide comfortable and affordable transport services to Oyo State commuters under the “Sustainable Actions for Economic Recovery” (SAfER) initiative. This initiative was designed to improve the city’s mobility and alleviate the challenges associated with the subsidy removal.
Hon. Dikko in the interview, in response to callers’ complaints on ticketing problems, noted that “already, there are 21 validators input in 21 buses and that in the coming week, 50,000 tap cards will be distributed to commuters for free as a means of payment to board the Omituntun SAfER buses.”
REPORTERS AT LARGE gathered that the card was initially issued to users at no cost but now cost N500. Users need to walk into the ticketing booths in any of the state’s transport terminals, get the card and register it, then immediately recharge it with any convenient amount enough to board the bus or more (the minimum amount for intra-city service is #1,000; the minimum amount for inter-city service is #2,000). Afterwards, users can tap their card on a ticket validator on the Omituntun bus they want to board, and then tap out the card on the ticket validator when alighting the Omituntun bus.
