Even as the May 2014 deadline given for the completion of the road has elapsed, fresh indications have emerged that the ongoing re-construction of the ever busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway has been stalled by the operations of tank farms around the Ibru-Ibafon axis as well as the attendant queues caused by truck drivers.
The road construction had resumed in January 2013 when the Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda visited the road to personally ascertain the true level of disrepair on the road and promised that urgent steps would be taken on it.
Even as the May 2014 deadline given for the completion of the road has elapsed, fresh indications have emerged that the ongoing re-construction of the ever busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway has been stalled by the operations of tank farms around the Ibru-Ibafon axis as well as the attendant queues caused by truck drivers.
The road construction had resumed in January 2013 when the Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda visited the road to personally ascertain the true level of disrepair on the road and promised that urgent steps would be taken on it.
Shipping Position Daily has however gathered from impeccable sources that powerful individuals behind the owners of the tank farms have remained adamant, arguing that if the road should continue, it will disrupt loading activities at their tank farms.
Various stakeholders who spoke with our correspondent last week however called on the government and proffered solutions that government should shut down the tank farm for sometime, so that it can construct the service lane first, and in the main time, road users can be using the main expressway.
According to a business man, Mr. Frank Obiekeze who spoke with our correspondent, it is wrong for the construction company to abandon the road when it has just got to the tank farm area.
"Before they awarded that contract, was there no design? We don't know what the problem of the contractors is; we know the tank farms were there before they came to construct the road, so the relocation of the tank farms must have been in-built in the arrangement"
"I want to believe that the stoppage of the work has to do with contractual disagreement or poor funding of the contract, I don't want to believe it’s because of the tankers that are here"
"They can take away the tankers and let them be coming as they are invited, most of them come here to park and even turn the place to workshops, some come here and stay for three weeks and they mess up the entire environment, the drainage system becomes their toilet and so on" he said.
Another operator, a member of NUPENG, Comrade Nurudeen Babatunde argued that the bad state of the road and the subsequent abandonment by the construction company is not in favour of truck drivers.
Speaking further, he stated that, "even the transporters, I don't think they are enjoying the state of the roads, it’s all about mutual understanding, they can appeal to tanker drivers to vacate the place so that the road will be put in order for the benefit of everybody, I don't want to believe the drivers are enjoying the road as it is".
A petroleum marketer, Chris Iyasere lamented that doing busing around the tank farms has become more challenging by the day. He called on government to ensure that the refineries are working so that trucks coming from the North can be transferred there for loading.
"Many of us doing business around here are not particularly happy about the location of these tank farms, they are not supposed to be the normal way of storage and distribution of petroleum products, tankers from Sokoto, Katsina and other places will come and queue up here, let government put the refineries in order, divert the trucks there and then fix the road" he said.
In a chat with Shipping Position Daily also, President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) Dr. Frank Ukoh observed that fuel trucks are the major problem of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway.
He advised on the need for government to apply tact in constructing the tank farm axis in a way that it will not lead to fuel shortage or scarcity of petroleum products across the country.
"If the expressway is free and the tankers are off the expressway, traffic will flow, but you will see them staying on the expressway, trying to access the service lane and this is the problem, if we can get them to stay on the service lane without moving to the expressway, traffic will flow"
"This requires the NUPENG task force and all the other security agencies to close ranks and ensure that each tanker does not enter the expressway, and if at all they want to do, let it be at night", he advised.
While the expressway is being fixed, Dr. Ukor advised that government can direct road users heading to Apapa to find other means of getting to their destination.
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