Following an investigation carried out by Shipping Position Daily recently on how truckers and some motor boys have turned the Apapa Port gate and environs to den of prostitution, the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), has swayed into action by cleaning and driving out miscreants and traders of different kinds out of the port areas.
Shipping Position Daily had exclusively reported that truckers and motor boys had turned the main gate and other areas within Lagos port axis to a haven of commercial sex workers where miscreants and other unscrupulous elements carry out their nefarious act mostly at night.
Days after the report, our correspondent who visited the Tin Can Port observed that traders who sell different alcoholic drinks at the port gate, beggars and other miscreants who has turned the ports gate to their abode have been sent packing, with security and the NPA officials on ground to arrest whoever want to find his way back to the place.
One of the traders who spoke to our correspondent said they were surprised to see the officials of the NPA and the Police who came to flush them out of where they make their daily living.
According to her, “We were surprised to see the NPA officials and the Police who came to drive us out this morning, this is where we make our living and we even pay for the space where we sell, some guys always come around every day to collect N100 each from us, except for those who beg for alms every other person pay here,” she said.
When questioned about the possibility of some of the traders disguising as prostitutes, she quickly responded by saying, “I don’t know, those that do that know themselves, and they are the ones they should send away, not those of us who have genuine market to sell”.
Reacting to the clean up the chairman of the Association Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (ARFFN) Tin Can Chapter, Mr. Darrick Jude Ige said it will be impossible to get rid of the sex workers who ply their trade at the Tin Can axis, if the problem of the perennial traffic gridlock is not resolved.
According to him, “you won’t find the traders in front of the gate in the morning until the closing hours, that is when they will return there, but on the issue of those who are selling their bodies, that is between the truckers, motors and the ladies.
“And these things take place inside containers, what these ladies do is that they disguised, you see them with groundnuts that is not up to N300 and that is what they will sell from morning till evening, but they are only using that to disguise, the motor boys know them, so when they come like that they negotiate price and do whatever they want to do inside the container at the back. But if the gridlock is removed they won’t have any place to carry out their acts”, he said.
Also speaking, the Public Relation Officer of the Tin Can Customs Command; Superintendent Uche Ejieseme told our correspondent that the clean-up may be as a result of the report, as he said the issue have been reported already.
When contacted the Corporate Affairs Manager NPA, Mr. Jatto Adams said he would get back to our correspondent on the update, however as at the time of publication, efforts to get the update were futile as calls and text messages sent to him were not replied to.
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