Tanker Owners bribe N10,000 to security agents, lose N15 million daily to private hands

• Osinbajo visits Lagos, orders 72-hour joint operation to clear Apapa gridlock

As Lagos State Police Command and other relevant agencies commence, ‘Operation Restore Sanity’ (ORS) yesterday to free Apapa of gridlock, the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), has revealed that its members pay as much as N10,000 to security agents to allow them to drive against traffic.

The union also request that the Federal Government to compel shipping lines and tank farms’ operators to provide holding bay for their containers and tankers It said only the provision of holding bay for containers and parks for fuel tankers could end the perennial gridlock at the two port access roads. 

Its Lagos State’s Vice Chairman (Dry Cargo) sector, Mohammed Inuwa Abdullahi, said "the traffic gridlock had create opportunities for  security agents to collect illegal money as much as N10,000 from truck drivers in some areas from Ijora axis, Berger yard, Trinity down to Coconut axis of the Apapa Oshodi Express road.

“After collecting the money, they allow the truckers to drive against traffic to Tincan Port, resulting to total blockage of road up in Liverpool and Apapa Port axis,” he added. He explained that lack of holding bays was largely responsible for the long queues and massive extortions by security operatives drafted to the port access roads to maintain law and order. 

Abdullahi, who said with over 1,500 trucks coming to the port daily, both the drivers and truck owners were losing N15 million daily to private hands. He said: “Since the ports open 24 hour daily, if you multiply the N15million by 365 days, the amount would be running to N5.47 billion in a year. This is apart from extortion by shipping lines.”

The vice-president noted that some shipping companies, out of greed were shying away from providing holding bays in order to make more profit by cutting down cost and expenses of cargo handling equipment. 

Also, he said the tank farms along Trinity down to Coconut axis of Apapa Oshodi Expressway were owned by individual, independent oil marketers and wondered why government was leaving them to obstruct the roads with their tankers without sanction. 

According to him, it was not the responsibility of government to provide parks for the tank farms owners rather he said that they ought to have made provision for parks for their customers’ trucks. 

He added that as a matter of urgency, palliative works should be carried at Trinity, Sunrise and Julus Berger yard axis of the road before the main road construction take place to enable trucks from the ports and the oil depots have smooth exit movement. 

Abdullahi blamed some security operatives for misconducts, saying that some of those drafted to control traffic on the major port roads in Apapa were responsible for the resurgence of gridlock and extortion. 

A port security officer attached to one of the terminals at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) Apapa accused security operatives responsible for directing traffic in Apapa of turning the gridlock situation into a big business. 

He alleged that on Tuesday night, only trucks belonging to Flour Mills Nigeria were allowed into the port from midnight until 5am. 

The port security officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, explained that apart from the bad stretch from the back of Leventis through Marine Bridge to Ijora ascent that requires urgent palliatives, Police and Naval officials aid certain categories of people to disrupt the flow of outbound traffic. He said: “On Tuesday night, all outbound traffic was stopped from about 2359 hours till 0515 hours for Flour Mills trucks to drive one-way to their facility.


“The window was used by Flour Mills to exit and take in trucks. Having being kept on hold for more than five hours, the outbound traffic had accumulated and disorganized, with all manners of queues and lanes formed, this coupled with the bad stretch is the immediate cause of the outbound gridlock we have been witnessing.” Several road users, who expressed frustration at the gridlock, also blamed the traffic control officials for allowing the situation degenerate to the present level. Oyinlola Bakare, who identified herself as a staff of a shipping agency said, “I have been here at Ijora for more than three hours. I left my house in Surulere since 6am just to get to work before 7am but here I am still stuck between trucks with no hope of any movement.