As part of its on-going measures to ensure safety and standard of trucks doing business at Lagos ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has disclosed that it has so far certified over 9000 trucks. It said the certified trucks were products of intense standardisation scrutiny.
This was disclosed yesterday in Lagos by the General Manager, Western ports of the NPA; Chief Michael Ajayi during an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily.
Chief Ajayi also disclosed that 10 drivers have been arrested for unlawful possession of the sticker which NPA affixes on trucks that have been examined and certified okay to do business in the ports.
Appraising the level of compliance, the General Manager disclosed that the exercise is on course, adding that security agencies, including the Police and Vehicles Inspection Officers (VIO)are being deployed to man the ports gates, so as to ensure that rickety vehicles are not allowed into the ports.
He said that the Police are currently investigating the culprits whom he said are drivers of rickety trucks so as to unravel how they were able to get the NPA stickers which according to him, may have been cloned or transferred by other truck operator who might have earlier registered with NPA.
“Let me tell you that we have recorded over 9000 trucks now and we are still recording on a daily basis”, he affirmed.
He disclosed that the agency is yet to get strong evidence about the rumoured cloning of the entry permit stickers.
According to him, the NPA is pursuing a noble course, pointing out that public safety, security of lives and property remain a noble course to the agency.
“For cloning of stickers we have not got strong evidence but we are not ruling it out, at least there are rickety trucks still loitering around the ports access road”
He also warned that anyone found to have cloned the stickers will face the wrath of the law; alleging that some of the truckers may have transferred their stickers to their colleagues for usage.
“We just want to be cautious to ensure that the stickers are not cloned, because when a policy is in place there is need for review on a daily basis and that is why we need to adopt some strict measures.”
Ajayi however added that members of the truck owners unions have eventually keyed into the scheme adding that those who are yet to comply are just being adamant.
Speaking further, he said “we are now on enforcement and compliance, that is why I said we have registered 9000 trucks and I can’t even give you the exact figure now because it is continuous”.
He also revealed that some of the trucks that underwent road worthiness test and inspections could not meet the standard and as a result they were not registered.
“We recently went to inspect about 40 vehicles and it was just four that passed the test while others could not because of their rickety nature”, he told our correspondent.
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