Time for NPA to Free Mile 2-Tin-Can Port Axis, Dislodge Extortionists

Return of the traffic gridlock.  PHOTOS: By Tunde Oloko

By Saheed Olatunji, reporter

The perennial traffic gridlock between Mile 2 and the Tin Can Island Port on Oshodi/Apapa Expressway in Lagos State has returned The Spynews can confirm.

This is happening despite the deployment of the electronic call-up system (Eto), designed to regulate truck movement and prevent indiscriminate access to the ports by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

The Eto, introduced by the NPA and managed by Truck Transit Parks (TTP), stakeholders said, has delivered significant improvements to traffic management around the Lagos Port Complex and the Tin-Can Island Port before the current ugly situation.

Some of the ‘camp-boys’ operating on the Oshodi-Apapa Port Expressway. PHOTO: By Tunde Oloko

The system, according to an importer, Kolapo Osubiyi assisted “in the reduction of the long-standing gridlock along the Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors by introducing a structured scheduling system that regulated truck movement in and out of the ports.

The system, Osubiyi said, “brought order to previously chaotic access roads such as Mile-2 Apapa Port Road by ensuring that trucks moved only on approved times rather than flooding the port corridor indiscriminately, as we are witnessing now. The system also improved the use of designated truck parks for empty containers, resulting in the reduction of congestion within and around the ports.”

The Gridlock. PHOTO: By Tunde Oloko

The management of the NPA, Osubiyi said, needs to embark on serious campaign operation to dismantle all the illegal checkpoints along the port corridor to boost and facilitate international business. According to him: ” the progress by the Eto appears to have been eroded. The resurgence of the gridlock suggests a systemic failure in the effectiveness of the electronic call-up system. The inability of the system to control truck movement efficiently points to serious operational lapses that needs to be addressed by the Ministry and the NPA,” he said

Another stakeholders who spoke with The Spynews, Johnson Abraham alleged that the trailer drivers, security agents and their camp-boys are responsible for the current sorry situation along the road and called on the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the management of NPA to come up with a joint exercise to ensure that the perennial gridlock erra does not return to the port corridor.

Investigations conducted by the Soynews revealed that motorists and commercial bus drivers are no longer enjoying unlimited access to the Tin Can and Apapa ports from Oshodi because of the extortion and indiscriminate parking of container ladened trucks along the Expressway.

On last Friday, findings revealed that it takes vehicles over an hour from Mile-2 to access the Tin-Can port because of the indiscriminate parking of trucks between Coconut Bus Stop and the port

NPA and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, one of the port users, Gbenga Agbalaya said, need to open the Tin-Can express road to boost businesses.

“Opening Tin-Can Port access road would promote free flow of traffic, seamless evacuation of cargo, trade facilitation and ease of doing business.

“It is our hope and prayer that the road clearance operation would be embarked upon by the NPA to prevent re-grouping and return of extortion bandits taking advantage of gridlock to extort truckers and burgle containers in transit,” a clearing agent, Moshood Agbalaya said

He said the NPA should be worried that “months after rehabilitation and completion of the road project, port users and motorist cannot access the port directly except by driving against traffic because of the indiscriminate parking along the port corridor.

A clearing agent, Sunday Okikiola berated the activities of non-state actors and confirmed the readiness of the stakeholders to collaborate with the NPA in removing the indiscriminate parking of container ladened trailers on the port corridor

“The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the NPA need to come up with regulations that will make people to comply because they have the responsibility to provide the right environment for business to thrive and traders to do their business.

“If you cannot drive freely in and out of the ports, businesses cannot thrive. The pressure on the Tin-Can – Apapa axis is as a result of the activities of the non-state actors along the Mile 2 Express road. There are many points that trucks and importers of vehicles are meant to part with money before getting to their destination, after leaving the port.,” he said.