Lagos Takes over Management of Apapa Gridlock, Plans to Deploy 500 LASTMA Officials
The Lagos state government Monday said it will take over the management of the Apapa gridlock from the Presidential Task Team (PTT) which has been disbanded for failure to perform.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who visited the Apapa and Tincan ports made the announcement, saying it was the only way to address the issue of continued gridlock in the environment.
Sanwo-Olu promised to call a stakeholders meeting next week which will involve the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), truck owners union and others on how to address the gridlock.
The inspection had taken the governor to Lilypond truck terminal, Wharf Road, Apapa Port, and Tincan Port, Truck Park.
During the visit, stakeholders were engaged in blame game over who is responsible for the gridlock in what helped in affirming the decision of the governor.
Members of the Committee of Freight Forwarders and Maritime Truckers (COFFAMAT) had pointed accusing fingers on officials of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) and the disbanded Presidential Task Force on Port Decongestion and Nigeria Police for corrupt practices that encouraged the gridlock.
According to COFFAMAT, after collecting kickbacks, truck drivers were allowed to park indiscriminately in what worsened the traffic problem.
But members of the Council of Maritime Transport Union and Association (COMTUA) rose in defence of the Police and disbanded Task Force.
COMTUA said the problem was that the truck drivers and some stakeholders deliberately refused to obey traffic rules.
The governor while rounding his visit informed the stakeholders that a meeting would be held next week on the Apapa gridlock.
He told stakeholders, “This is not the first time; certainly not the second, and in fact this is about the third or the fourth time in my government that we are trying to see how we bring better solution to Apapa gridlock.
“On all of the time we have come, we knew that we are having a road construction but you can see now that inside Apapa, there is significant progress in this area, particularly on the road construction site. A lot of road has been done.
“Today (Monday) even being the public holiday, it is even difficult for us to say that we have achieved a 100 per cent traffic free flow into Apapa.
“And we have all heard all the complaints from the various stakeholders, the unions, freight forwarders, drivers, everyone has said their own side of the story and you can see that it is multifaceted.
“There have been accusations around cabal collecting money from operators and accusations around being hijacked by some people and there has also been counter accusations.
“What are we solving at the end of the day? We are trying to bring about a cohesive metrics where all the stakeholders in Apapa understand and appreciate the various roles that everybody needs to play and let everybody identify and solve it.
“You are aware that since last year, the PTT had been working. Now, there is a process that is starting in which the state government needs to take over that task force. One of the reasons for this trip is to start that process, to see things for myself.
“The state government is to set up a seamless operation to have a team of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, about 400 to 500, dedicated to Apapa gridlock; have a team of police men from Area B dedicated to the same gridlock. We understand what the port police command is doing because they are also part of the problem.
“More importantly, to be able to speak to all the big men in the office, the ship owners, the port terminal operators, freight forwarders, who are not here with the port drivers who we see that they are the one carrying the brunt.
“So, when somebody is supposed to deliver a container and he is being charged a demurrage, that cannot be a working operation, it’s not fair.
“When it takes eight to 10 hours for operation to hand over to another team.
For that whole eight to 10 hours, the ports are locked; the trucks cannot come in because someone is just trying to take over.
“I have seen it again and will go back to see and plot a template.”
The governor said he will be meeting the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi to inform him of the moves by the statement and for the NPA management to understand its roles.
He also said he will be informing the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Adamu, of the latest development to address the traffic issues.
He added, “As a government, we don’t own the port, but we have a responsibility to our citizens. The turn around here is the most expensive turn around port that you have.
“I am hoping that this trip will give us another opportunity to resolve this issue, identify the roadblocks.”
He challenged those raising allegation of extortion to come up with evidence, adding that the state government was determined to make people scapegoats.
He added, “It is part of ensuring that we reduce the ease of doing process of businesses.
“It is a process and we cannot say we have all the solutions but we have seen the process again. We have seen that we can improve this process and we have identified the stakeholders.
“We need to also go back and see how we can normalise those things and understand that we have a problem here and we have to solve the problem.”
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