The Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) has reacted to the allegation that the agency did not give full support to the Presidential Task Team on Apapa traffic.
This comes just as the Chairman of the Association of Maritime Trucks Owners (AMATO); Chief Remi Ogungbemi declared that new efforts to ease traffic in Apapa will yield no result.
Recall that, a truck owner and a member of the Presidential task team; Mr. Abdullahi Inuwa had alleged recently that NPA and some shipping companies frustrated efforts of the task team to restore sanity within the port corridor.
However, reacting to the allegation, the Assistant General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of the NPA; Mr. Ibrahim Nasir discredited the allegation, stating that the agency gave the team full support in its effort to address the traffic gridlock along the port corridor.
Nasir stressed that the Presidential Task Team is an agency constituted by the Federal Government and as such NPA cannot afford not to support it, he described the allegation as a figment of the person’s imagination.
According to him, “there is no way NPA will not support any agency of government or any agency constituted by federal government, it is a collaborative effort to see that the gridlock in Apapa will become a thing of the past, so for anyone to say that NPA did not support the task team, it is a figment of the person’s imagination”.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Association of Maritime Trucks Owners (AMATO); Chief Remi Ogungbemi has said no amount of presidential task force can resolve the Apapa traffic, the AMATO chieftain said setting up taskforce will not bring any solution to the lingering traffic crisis at the Apapa Port area.
According to him, about five different task forces have been set up to help solve the problem of traffic gridlock at the port axis, but alleged that many of the officials find it as a way to enrich their pockets.
He argued that, the solution to the Apapa traffic is in the deployment of technology and not the creation of task forces and committees.
In his words: “Setting up of taskforce cannot and will not bring solution, we have already used about five different types of task forces; they will only come do what they want to do, leaving hardship and injury on truckers, there is nothing good they offer”
“I will say that; government should look for other ways to solve the Apapa gridlock problem. To my own understanding, I believe every problem has a solution, but if the government doesn’t take the right approach, we cannot get a solution.
“We need technologies to address most of these challenges, there are people that are benefiting from the chaos, most of the gridlock are man-made and has become a ‘pot of soup’ to many.
“We need a solution that will take away human interference, so government should look for a modern system or technology on how to address this issue, we have advised that the authority should make a pronouncement that all the trucks go back to their private parks and garages, but because some people are benefitting from the chaos, that’s why they don’t like anything that will bring about that change”. he said
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