Illegal activities of street traders, traffic hoodlums, street urchins and extortionists have returned to port corridors that were cleared recently by security agencies. Investigations by Shipping Position Daily have revealed.
Recall that in a bid to enhance trade facilitation and make Lagos ports more secure and safe for port users, the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority last week commenced joint operations to rid the port’s access roads of all illegal activities.
The operation was collectively undertaken by operatives of the Nigerian Army, the Navy, the Nigerian Police, the security department of the NPA and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA.
At the flag-off of the exercise, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu who was represented by LASTMA Head of Operations, Mr Hassan Adekoya, specifically noted that the exercise will last for seven days starting from the Apapa Port, down to Lilypond, back to inward Apapa to Tin-Can first and second gates and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal phases 1 and 2.
Our correspondent who took a tour around Ijora, Apapa and Tin Can port environs last week, observed that the shanties and illegal extortion points have significantly been cleared by the security operatives.
However, touts, hoodlums, including non-state actors have returned to the illegal points where they extort truck drivers along the port corridors.
Specifically, last week, our correspondent sighted some touts carrying long plastic pipes collecting money and passing truck drivers right under Ijora Bridge in connivance with Police personnel, LASTMA and Neighbourhood Watch Officers.
Between Ijora and Leventis Bridges, our correspondent counted no fewer than five extortion points mounted by these security operatives.
Some food vendors, sellers of alcoholic drinks, unregistered pharmaceuticals and sex-enhancing drugs and cart pushers and other illegal businessmen and women were still seen carrying out their businesses around the port access road.
One of the food vendors at Ijora told our correspondent that although some persons have been sent packing by the security operatives, she was lucky to have escaped the raid, because she renders an essential service of selling food to truck and commercial drivers as well as security operatives.
The food vendor who pleaded anonymity disclosed that the clean-up exercise only takes effect during working hours. She said other vendors bring out their wares very early in the morning and late in the evenings when the security operative have retired for the day.
Our correspondent who visited the Tin Can port ‘first gate’ and ‘second gate’ observed that the shanties particularly adjacent the port gates and the roadsides have been significantly cleared, but there are pockets of vendors who have refused to vacate the port corridor. There are still clusters of clearing agents and other port users who still patronize them, despite the heavy presence of security operatives at the port gates.
In a chat with the National Public Relations Officer of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN); Mr Taiwo Fatomilola, he confirmed that despite the clearing of the shanties the traders still carry out their illegal businesses around the port corridor.
Fatomilola specifically noted that the vendors surface and display their wares very early in the morning between 5 am and 8 am and vacate, only to reappear in the evening by 6 pm. He also alleged that the vendors had earlier paid some money to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to transact businesses at the shanties.
The AREFFN’s spokesman stressed that the cleanup exercise is not sustainable as the government is not sincere enough to enforce compliance. He also added that the shanties will most likely resurface again after about two months of enforcement.
In his words: “The shanties around the port environment have been removed. But whenever anything like this kick starts, it is just an approach that will operate for just a while. After a while, it will die. That is Nigeria for you. Most of these traders you are seeing have paid NPA. They are only told to step aside for a while. After two months or thereabout, they will resurface again.
“If you come to the port gate very early in the morning, you will find them there. When it gets to around 8 am to 9 am they will disappear. But when it is exactly 6 pm or around 5:30 pm they will reappear. They may not erect back their tents, kiosk or offices but you will see them selling and people drinking”, Fatomilola stated.
Also speaking, the Tin Can Chapter Public Relations Officer of the African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (APFFLON), Mr Clinton Okoro lamented that the clean-up exercise is long overdue, adding that the port corridor is littered with unscrupulous individuals with a serious security threat to the port community.
He said: “NPA has been on that for long. This is not the first time they are doing that. With the kind of economy we are facing, at times we pity those people that are selling in the shanties because they are trying to earn a living. However, the Nigerian system is not really helping matters. The port is a very good place to accommodate a lot of people that are not working. Business owners bring their businesses to the port because of the high level of traffic of people at the ports.
“I am not in support of these traders selling alongside and blocking the roads at the ports, but besides that, when you take a look from Mile 2 towards the Tin Can axis, you would find out that is not only those that are selling that are blocking the roads. There are so many residents who dump their refuse by the roadside; blocking the drainage system. Another cause of these menace are the trailer drivers of which majority of them sleep in their vehicles. That is where they eat, bath and sleep for weeks”.
On his part, the Secretary General of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO); Sani Bala Muhammed said the ongoing clearance operations around the ports is a right step in the right direction.
While appreciating the government’s efforts so far, Muhammed urged the authorities in the maritime industry to work out modalities that would sustain the temporary clean-up exercise beyond one week, to prevent re-grouping and a return of illegal shanty dwellers as well as operators of illegal checkpoints at the ports corridor.
