Senator Adekunle Muniru Muse (Former Chairman, Apapa Local Govt)
Senator Adekunle Muniru Muse (Former Chairman, Apapa Local Govt)
The permanent solution is for the Federal Government to do something urgently by way of expanding the road infrastructure from Apapa straight to Costain, for now, the service roads are almost impassable, vehicles are only using the bridge, and looking at the bridge, do you expect to find flood on top of the bridge? But the flood is there whenever there is a heavy downpour; the service road must be made to be free so that trucks can move freely. Also, If you climb up the bridge from Leventis, you will see a loop on your right going to Naval Base, this road has been closed for over three years unrepaired, we have Army, Navy and police in Apapa, how do you want them to do their security jobs when the roads are not passable?
Princess Vicky Hashtrup (Chairman, STOAN)
The permanent solution is to first of all relocate the tank farms in Apapa, secondly there should be a holding bay for trucks, these are the things that should have been looked at when the port concession programme was being carried out, government should have thought about a holding bay where trucks will be called from. It is not the responsibility of the seaport terminals, another thing government should look at is the issue of when empty containers can come into the port and when they should not come in, and also when the petroleum tankers can access the Apapa port environment, there should be a bit of moderation here and there, we agree that the roads are quite bad, but we could do a sort of palliative measure by regulating when the trucks should access the port, this will bring about sanity.
Chief Remi Ogungbemi (Chairman, AMARTO)
The problem has to do with the fact that the environment can no longer accommodate the volume of activities they are giving to the environment, for example, the road we have been using for the past 40 years are still the same, the facilities are still the same, but the population is increasing, business activities are increasing, the volume of goods coming into the port are also increasing. We need expansion of necessary infrastructures to bring sanity and orderliness to our road, it’s not by setting up task force and arresting vehicles, it’s not by imposing fines.
Professor Bamidele Badejo (Former Lagos Commissioner for Transportation)
There are many options that could be looked into, but the most important of them is to apply what we call; Development Control Measures, the cause of the traffic is because the tank farms have converted what used to be their truck terminals inside their various tank farms into expansion of facilities in order to add more tanks to their loading areas, each tank farm is expected to provide parking facilities for the trucks that are coming in to load fuel.
Mr. Lucky Amiwero (President NCMDLCA)
The government has a permanent solution to this problem because they are the one handling the traffic on the port access road; they take charge of the petroleum product, and the cargo. There is need for NPA and the petroleum minister to work together in other to see how this crises can be resolved, because there are lots of unresolved issues which are paramount that needs the ministers of petroleum, finance, transport and works to solve. Only when this is done, then the drivers and trade unions can play their roles in reducing the traffic on the access road which is constituting nuisance, thus affecting people when they go to their various places of work.
Barr. Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime Lawyer)
I will suggest that those security personnel mostly at the second gate which are the police officers, Nigerian Navy, NPA security and also the unions to find immediate solution to this problem and the tank farm owners should be relocated because it is not the only place that Nigerian can have petroleum product.
Comrade Matthew Adele (Dock worker)
First, we need to know the major causes of the gridlock and the bad road. Secondly, the nonchalant attitude of the truck drivers and the delay in the re-construction of roads are bane of smooth flow of traffic on that stretch. One of the major solutions to the gridlock along Oshodi Apapa expressway, is to accelerate the construction work and also evacuate tank farm along that route, there is also the need to sensitize most of the truck drivers. The Federal Government should provide adequate trailer parks for their trailers and other port users; the federal government should also put an end to building of more tank farms.
Mr. Frank Ailakor (ANLCA)
The federal government should do something fast because there are lot of business men and women with various activities at the port, every day they spend nothing less than three hours or more before they get to Apapa. So people are suffering here, the federal government should look into the affairs of the people doing business at the port they have to make sure that the roads are in order ,though we know that some constructions are ongoing in some areas, but they have to do some things to help those that work here in Apapa ,because this is the gate way to the nation’s economy and government are also earning lot of money from the port ,we are expecting that they do some thing as quickly as possible.
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