Stakeholders Lament Extortion, Predict Deaths As Perennial Gridlock Returns Over Marine Bridge Closure
Excruciating traffic gridlock and unbridled extortion have all returned to the Apapa port corridor. This follows the closure of the Apapa-bound lane on the popular Marine Bridge leading into and out of the Lagos Port Complex. Findings by Shipping Position Daily have revealed.
Given the impact the closure will have on port users, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said it is in partnership with LASTMA, Police, FRSC, and the Nigerian Navy to ameliorate the effect. It said it has already worked out alternative routes to manage the traffic situation in the affected areas.
“The Authority wishes to solicit the understanding and cooperation of all stakeholders as we continue to support measures to mitigate the temporary disruptions”, it appealed.
This is even as the operators of the electronic call-up system; Messrs Trucks Transit Parks Ltd (TTP) has advised truckers to use alternative routes to avoid the heavy traffic occasioned by the closure of the ever-busy bridge.
Recall that the Lagos State Government had announced a traffic diversion plan for the Apapa-bound lane of Marine Bridge for about three months. A statement signed by the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde informed that the partial closure of a section of the bridge will take effect from February 26 to May 28, 2023.
Oladeinde said “traffic heading towards Leventis/Apapa from Ijora will be diverted to Marine Bridge-Marine Bridge Road-Mobil Road U-turn to connect Leventis Service Lane to access Leventis (Apapa). Alternatively Marine Bridge Total Ramp inwards Malu Access Road will be open to traffic for motorists to continue their journeys as aforementioned”.
But, speaking with our correspondent last week, the Managing Director and Co-founder of TTP), Mr Jama Onwubuariri noted that his management is working with the regulators and authorities concerned to ensure that trucks are released in controlled batches.
He also informed that due to the bridge closure and construction, TTP meets daily with the regulators to determine the number of trucks that will be batched and released from parks and pre-gates.
While advising truckers and motorists to use alternative routes to avoid congestion of the roads, Onwubuariri stressed that the TTP team is also working with the enforcement team and other government security agencies to ensure there is no traffic gridlock along the Apapa port corridor.
“We are working with the regulators and concerned authorities to ensure that trucks are released in controlled batches. Our team and regulators meet on a daily basis to determine the number of trucks that will be batched and released from parks and pre-gates daily given the ongoing road construction.
“We also have our road marshals do an assessment of the road conditions each day, they assess the condition of the road and the request from the terminal to determine what number of trucks will be released at any point in time so as not to clog the road. This measure helps to avoid too many trucks being on the road.
“The TTP team is also working with the enforcement team and other government security agencies to ensure that there is no traffic gridlock along the Apapa port corridor. Trucks are also advised of alternative routes so that the roads are not congested” Onwubuariri noted
Reacting to the perennial gridlock at the Marine Bridge axis, the TTP Head of Operations, Mr. Irabor Akonoman informed that TTP has been grappling with some extortion points allegedly mounted by security enforcement personnel along the route which according to him adds to the delay of free-flowing trucks.
Akonoman lamented the death of a driver who was killed due to an alleged refusal to give money to a Policeman. He said this resulted in a protest leading to massive gridlock along that axis.
“We also are grappling with some extortion points along the route which also adds to the delay, an unfortunate incident happened yesterday in which a policeman allegedly caused the death of a driver due to his refusal to pay and this caused a protest that led to massive gridlock yesterday. The backlog of trucks that could not proceed to the port would be cleared over a few days” Akonoman said.
On his part, Secretary General of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Sanni Bala, who confirmed the incident told our correspondent that a driver assistant (motor boy) was crushed to death in the early hours of Wednesday on the Total Marine Bridge along Apapa port access road, when police officers who are assigned to control traffic on the bridge attempted to collect N500 bribe from a truck driver.
Bala said the policemen attached to the Area ‘B’ police command stopped the truck driver and his motor boy and demanded for a bribe of N500 which the truck driver refused which led to the serious beating of the driver by the police officers.
According to him, the motor boy who had come out of the truck to plead was also beaten by the policemen and in an attempt to escape from the officers, he fell under the truck while the driver was already in motion, and he was crushed to death immediately.
The AMATO chieftain however called for an efficient enforcement architecture devoid of corrupt practices, to promote traffic sanity along the port access roads.
He said: “We truckers don’t have any problem with TTP. The problem with Eto and truckers is the enforcement architecture. The enforcement architecture is very corrupt and ineffective; they are not doing what they are supposed to do. They are supposed to be passing trucks seamlessly without mounting checkpoints on the roads in order to collect money from truckers, which causes tailbacks of traffic. If they are there to promote traffic sanity, there will be seamless passing of trucks without allowing any truck to wait on the road. But if you go there, you would see so many checkpoint rights from the pre-gate down to the port gate. That is why despite the deployment of Eto technology to regulate the movement of trucks, there is still traffic on the road. Trucks are still visible along the port corridor”.
“If we can manage the only route very well, we would not have any problem. All we want is an efficient and enforcement architecture that is not corrupt. Most of them are hiding under the guise of promoting traffic sanity to cause traffic commotion in order to make money. That is where we find ourselves today. That is why the trucking business is collapsing. We need an efficient enforcement architecture that is not there to compound the problem of traffic to make profit, but to diffuse traffic for orderliness and sanity sake along the port corridor”, Bala concluded.
On the other hand, the National President of the Council of Maritime Transport Unions and Associations (COMTUA), Mr Adeyinka Aroyewun noted that the problem of traffic experienced in the past has nothing to do with the electronic call-up system, adding that the e-Call up is a pure conduit of extortion.
“The traffic congestion has returned. That is to tell us that the problem of traffic that we have experienced in the past has nothing to do with the electronic call-up. You will see the failure of the electronic call-up in the next eight weeks. This is because when there is a problem on the road and there is a blockage, the traffic congestion will naturally return. It means the electronic call-up has nothing to do. It is a pure conduit of extortion and that we have been reporting times without numbers” Aroyewun alleged.
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