Apapa: Sanity returns on roads, bridges as security agencies give way

…presidential taskforce achieving success in clearing gridlock

Sanity is gradually creeping back onto roads and bridges leading to Apapa, erstwhile headquarters of gridlock and congestion in Nigeria, due largely to the dismantling of checkpoints manned by security agencies as well as voluntary withdrawal of trucks from those routes by their owners.

This development is a major fallout of a presidential taskforce set up last week Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. It is also a result of the 72-hour ultimatum given to the trucks to vacate all the roads and bridges in Apapa.

The new presidential taskforce is the second in less than 12 months. The first was set up by Vice President Osinbajo in August 2018 when Apapa was shut down with spill-over effects on the entire Lagos, killing businesses and shutting out residents from their environment.

The Osinbajo taskforce was an abysmal failure. It was characterised by compromises and corruption. The taskforce erected multiple checkpoints manned by officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Army and other security operatives along the roads leading to Apapa and Tin-can Island ports.

These checkpoints served as clearing houses for the trucks as members of the taskforce left the task of controlling traffic and went after their selfish interest, collecting ‘tolls’ from the truck owners.

However, the new taskforce is already achieving results. Kayode Opeifa, former commissioner for transport in Lagos State and the vice chairman of the taskforce, told journalists on Sunday that the gridlock had been cleared up to 50 percent, hoping to take it further by Monday (yesterday).

When Businessday drove through the Apapa-oshodi Expressway yesterday, it was noticed that all the way from Cele Bus Terminal to Mile 2 Bridge, the road was free of the usual heavy trucks, allowing other road users unfettered access to the expressway.

Similarly, on Ijora-wharf Road on Monday, few container-carrying trucks (going to Lilypond Terminal) were sighted queuing on one lane of the road from Ijora Bridge, while another one-lane queue was seen from Marine Beach side of the road to Leventis Bus-stop where they were being released in batches to the ports, thereby maintaining orderliness on the port roads.

This arrangement also gave motorists and other port users easy entry to and exit from the port city.

Opeifa assured that Apapa roads, especially the only one leading to the port, would be

cleared. He pointed out that because of the nature of the vehicles on the roads and their large number, the trucks could still be found on the roads, but efforts were being made to move as many of them as possible off the road.

“We are using a combination of stakeholder engagement, traffic management direction and enforcement to clear up to port road inside Apapa. This is also backed up by a manual call-up system by the Nigerian Ports Authority

(NPA), which has started using the newly deployed empty container return yard at Lilypond Terminal,” Opeifa, who represented Osinbajo at a meeting in Lagos on Sunday, said.

Truck owners, port operators and other stakeholders were, on Monday, excited by these developments, especially the removal of the security agencies from the roads. For once, port users, particularly licensed customs agents and importers, worked in an environment devoid of these security agencies who became part of the Apapa problem.

Tony Anakebe, managing director, Gold-link Investment Limited, noted in a telephone interview with Businessday that the exit of military and naval personnel from Apapa road would help reduce the cost of transportation because the money spent by truckers to bribe these officers would no longer be charged on cargoes.

Businessday findings showed that these officers usually had civilian boys that went after trucks to collect money

for them. This was one of the reasons it became very costly to transport goods out of the port as truck drivers charged importers as high as N700,000 to N800,000 to move a 40-foot container from Apapa to warehouses within Lagos.

•Continues online at www.businessday.ng