Nigerian Shippers’ Council employees under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) has raised an alarm that the Ijora Bridge leading to the Apapa port is about to collapse.
President of the union; Comrade Mukhtar Adikwu in a chat with Shipping Position Daily said that the lives of the workers are in great danger because they had to navigate on the bridge daily, while manouvering through several trucks and Petroleum tankers which are now stationed permanently on the bridge.
The head office of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council is in the heart of Apapa.
According to Adikwu, the gridlock leading to the port is already telling on the health of the workers. He called on the federal government to direct all trucks to vacate the Ijora Bridge immediately in order to avoid a looming disaster.
Speaking further, he said, "there is a lot of dangers on these bridges leading to Apapa, the bridge can collapse at anytime, it is a calamity that is waiting to happen and government must do something about it and take serious action"
"It is a sacrifice that we the workers are making because there are lots of dangers on the way, you see us struggling with trucks everyday coming to the office, our lives are in great danger, but we don't have a choice than to keep coming to contribute our quota to the economy of this country"
"We force ourselves, even health-wise it is affecting the workers, but we don't have a choice than to keep coming", he said.
Comrade Adikwu noted that the bridges leading to the port are already in dilapidated condition and that parking a lot of petroleum tankers and trucks on the bridge will make it wear-out and could occur.
He lamented that "nobody is thinking about the looming disaster, the bridge has wear and tear, there is a number of load it is supposed to carry, but these trucks are stationed permanently on them, it is a risky situation"
"Anytime we go home by staff bus and we are passing through these tankers and trucks, I am always scared, also anytime I pass through that bridge, it is like somebody travelling by air, when you take off you are scared and when you land safely you thank God.
The bridge is old, if it were to be all these China bridges that they are constructing today, it would have collapsed"
He expressed assurances that when the Truck Transit Park (TTP) project which is being spearheaded by the Shippers’ Council comes into play, it would solve a lot issues pertaining to traffic gridlock in Apapa and across the country.
According to him, presently, trailers and trucks spend 15 days on queue just to access Apapa port, but with the TTP project, trucks would not spend more than 48hours at the park before they are called up to load cargo.
When he was asked by Shipping Position Daily on how confident he is that the truck drivers would obey the truck parks and make use of them, Adikwu said "if things are done normally truckers would obey the truck park’s call-up system, They are not an authority to themselves, it is only when the facilities are not there that they would not want to use the park" he said.
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