Stakeholders, including the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) have advocated that the Federal Government should direct the contractors handling the reconstruction of the Apapa end of the Oworonsoki –Apapa expressway to halt their activities and remove all the road barricades during the yuletide and new year holidays, so as to allow all the containers that are trapped in the various terminals to be evacuated.
The appeal was one of the highpoints of a stakeholders’ meeting which held on Friday in Lagos on the chaotic traffic into and out of Apapa. The meeting was presided over by the Permanent Secretary; Ministry of Transportation; Dr Magdalene Ajayi.
Stakeholders at the meeting included representatives of shipping companies, terminal operators, truck owners, the workers’ union, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Police, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
They submitted that, if the road blockades are removed by the contractors and trucks can access the port and exit the terminals, the huge number of containers that could not leave the ports, would be reduced.
Leading the stakeholders to make the request at the meeting, the managing director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman lamented that so much has been done to address the perennial traffic congestion on the two approaches to Lagos ports, yet the problem persists.
She also insisted that RoRo barge operations have been banned, even as she insisted that the directive that shipping companies must have holding bays must be obeyed.
Facing the stakeholders, the NPA MD asked: How did the rucks get to the roads without TDO (Terminal Delivery Order), why are the trucks on the roads without authorization?
On the need to open the roads for trucks to vacate the terminals, she pleaded that the Federal Ministry of Works should open up some of the roads as palliative to push the container-laden trucks that are trapped out.
She acknowledged that the main problem of accessibility by road is at Tin Can port, and she pleaded that, Tin Can Island Port must be accessible, let us free the roads”.
According to her, there is need to urgently provide palliative on the road leading to Tin Can Port, so that the road would be opened for trapped containers to exit the terminals.
She also expressed optimism that “between now and January, this should be done to free the roads and ensure that many containers that are trapped inside are evacuated”.
This position was also canvassed by stakeholders, including Seaports Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STAON), which stated that, “there is access to Tin Can port from Coconut, but none out ofd Tin Can.
Also speaking, the Lagos Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corp; Mr Olusegun Ogungbemide lamented that, even though the FRSC deployed about 137 officers to the Lagos ports’ corridor, the situation has not abated. He said the bulk of the traffic issues that the corps is contending with is at the Tin Can axis.
But, responding to the appeal on removal of the road construction blockades, the Permanent Secretary expressed reservation about the request. “I am not quite sure that opening all the roads will stop congestion on the road”, she argued.
She observed that portions of the road that have already been completed have been taken over by trucks waiting to enter the ports.
“The roads that have been completed have been taken over by trucks, so trucks coming out of the ports do not have space to move out. The owners of the trucks and the shipping companies are all guilty”, she alleged.
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