BAD ROADS: Depot Owners Count Losses

Owners of the multi-billion naira petroleum product tank farms in Apapa are now counting their losses as the effect of bad roads and the perennial rains have began taking their tolls on loading of trucks form the expansive facilities.

There are about 22 tank farms in Lagos alone and virtually all of them have been badly hit by the bad roads on the Apapa end of the Apapa- Oshodi expressway, especially between Sunrise Bus Stop and Coconut Bus Stop where most of the depots are located.

Unofficial sources put the daily losses at about N1.5Billion per depot. Each of the 222 depots were said to load an average of 100 trucks per day before the roads became ‘unmotorable’ and before the heavy rains set in. For most part of last week, the depots loaded an average of about four trucks each, while some could not load at all because of the situation of the roads leading into their premises.

The market value of a full tanker of Premium Motor Spirit; also known as petrol with the pump price of N65 per litre is about N2.15 million, while diesel costs about N2.84Million

Industry sources confirmed that although, the trucks come from all over the country to load in Lagos, many of them have stopped because of the state of the two roads leading into Apapa

A member of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Comrade Owolabi Jimoh told our correspondent that some of the trucks spend not less than three days to load and on the queue between Tin Can and Trinity bus stop in the bid to get out of the traffic jam,

“The heavy rain coupled with the bad state of this road has taken a toll on our business, the trucks are all trapped in the traffic, some of them have been there for three days now and they are no longer coming as before since there is no way to get out, we can see the condition of the road which is supposedly a federal road and yet government is doing nothing to solve the issue” he said.

He also raised alarm that “if things continue to be like this, it may cause some filling stations to run out of reserve and we all know what that means”.

He reiterated that Lagos, being the hub of petroleum activities in terms of importation serves other parts of the country and as such the state of the roads if not checked may begin to have effects on petroleum supply in the country because some of the trucks come in from far distances and other states to get products.