Apapa: Residents kick as trucks ‘invade’ reserved areas

Residents of Apapa Government Reser ved Area (AGRA) on Friday raised the alarm as trucks of all shapes and sizes ‘invaded’ the reserved area in search of parking space on the roads and avenues in the area.

Ayo Vaughan, chairman, Apapa Residents Association, who confirmed the incident to Businessday, noted that if not for the AGRA taskforce that helped to monitor trucks movement, some of the trucks would have made their roads and avenues parking lots.

“What we saw this morning was a spill-over from Tin Can Island. Tin Can roads have been totally blocked since Monday. On coming and seeing the chaos that was there, some of the trucks wanted to pass through our area but because they were not allowed, in an attempt to reverse, they compounded the traffic situation, especially at Liverpool junction,” Vaughan explained.

Because of this, Honeywell trucks and others decided to park at the Polysonic-point Road entry point. Some others parked at Marine Road, beginning from Lagoon Hospital up to AGRA office. Efforts by soldiers to control traffic at Liverpool did not produce much result. But they were able to redirect some trucks to Marine Road in an attempt to ease movement.

Vaughan, who disclosed that the presidential task team (PTT) on Apapa gridlock has concluded its assignment and handed over to Lagos State with LASTMA, police and Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) officials now in charge of traffic control, noted that Apapa traffic palaver was not yet over.

“Now, we have some relief as the trucks are no longer many on the bridges. But that is just during the day. At night, they will come forcefully and overrun everywhere, making movement very difficult. Some of us have advised ourselves not to go out in the night because you could get trapped,” he said.

The PTT, which was set up solely to find solution to the Apapa gridlock with the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, as chairman, spent three whole years on its assignment and left Apapa not in any way better than it met the port city.

In defense of the team’s apparent failure to put in place and sustain a traffic management system, Kayode Opeifa, the vice chairman of the PTT, has become vociferous in his assertions, at any given opportunity, that there is no gridlock in Apapa, citing other parts of Lagos where motorists also spend long hours in traffic.

It remains to be known when both Federal and Lagos State governments will stopped collecting huge revenues from the two seaports in Apapa, yet maintaining blind eyes to its challenging environment and suffocating traffic situation.