The ever-busy Apapa port area was thrown into confusion Friday morning following gunshots that were fired by personnel of the Nigerian Navy in as clash with truck drivers over alleged extortion of the drivers by the Navy.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that, at the entrance into the Lagos Ports, port users were reportedly scampering for safety, while commercial activities around the port were disrupted.
As at the time of filing this report, an eye witness at the scene of the pandemonium told Shipping Position Daily that a combined team of OP MESA have been drafted to the gate of Lagos port complex Apapa where the battle is fierce.
According to the eye witness account, "truck drivers are agitating that navy should go back to their barracks, they don't need them to load cargoes from the port"
"One person was shot during the fracas", she said.
When contacted, Chairman of Dry Cargo Section of National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) Alhaji Innua Mohammed told our correspondent that the association has been appealing to the truck drivers for calm.
"Apart from the extortion, the corporal punishment and oppression is unbearable, coupled with the damaging of our trucks by the Navy, I believe the drivers protesting are at the receiving end"
"We have been trying to plead with them to be calm because, already, we have registered our complaints with the government and there are some measures that are being taken"
"We have been telling them to be patient, but some of them have been there for so long and tensions are high"
"The government has to look into this issue with the Navy, if we are having so much pirate attacks on our waterways, the Navy should be in that axis, but they are here on the hinterland" Innua stated.
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