The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Apapa Road

  • Falana seeks removal of trailers from Apapa road

    The Federal High Court in Lagos will on May 6 deliver judgment in a suit filed by activist-lawyer Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) against Power, Works and Housing Minister  Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

    Justice Muslim Hassan fixed the date after the parties adopted their written addresses.

    Falana is praying the court to order the removal of tankers, trailers and other obstructions from the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. The road, he added, should be repaired after the removal of these encumbrances.

    He is also seeking a declaration that “the parking of tankers and trailers on the overhead bridges in Lagos is illegal and unconstitutional”.

    Such acts, Falana said,  “constitute a threat to the fundamental right to life of the applicant and other motorists” as guaranteed under Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

    Falana, a former Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) national president, sued the defendants over the deplorable condition of the road.

    He is seeking a declaration that the obstructions and to repair and maintain the road is illegal and unconstitutional, as it constitutes a threat to his fundamental right to life.

    The failure to make the road safe for motorists, he added,  violates his and others’ right to freedom of movement guaranteed by Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution.

    In a supporting affidavit, the SAN, who is ex-West African Bar Association (WABA) president, said many of the federal roads across the country were in bad shape, including the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

    “I also know as a fact that the traffic situation on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway today is unbearable and a dreadful risk to the lives of the motorists plying the road,” he said.

    The applicant said the road “has in recent times caused deaths through recurring accidents”.

    According to him, commuters plying the road risk their lives due to the heavy-duty vehicles that are stranded on the road “following the level of dilapidation.

    “Vehicular movement along the road has become a misadventure and a nightmare that the applicant often regrets venturing into each time he plies the road.

    “Long before the bad and dilapidated state of the road, it used to be less than 30 minutes’ drive from Oshodi to Apapa, but now the travelling time exceeds one hour.”

    Falana said last February, while travelling back to his Ikeja office after a prison visit, he almost had an accident while navigating through a big pothole on the road and almost hit an oncoming vehicle.

    The applicant sought an order that the respondents should remove the obstructions, repair and maintain the road forthwith.

    Falana urged the court to  declare that he is entitled to his fundamental right to life guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter.

    But, the minister denied Falana’s claims, saying the road “is under rehabilitation”. This, he said, was not the cause of the gridlock in the axis.

    In an affidavit deposed to by a litigation assistant in the Ministry of Power, Works & Housing, Ayodele Otedola, the minister claimed that a suit filed by the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria “has since 2010…caused the slow progress of work to rehabilitate the road for efficient use of motorists.”

    Falana’s claims, he said,  were not true, adding that the Apapa gridlock “is always caused by tanker drivers who normally follow the route to the port for the purpose of loading and offloading their goods.”

    Fashola said: “The failure of the first respondent to repair the road as alleged by the applicant has not in any way restricted or breached his freedom of movement.”

    The minister said Falana’s life was not under threat; that failure to fix the road was due to “paucity of funds”,  and that the rights sought to be enforced were not justiceable.

    “The applicant has no locus standi to sue as he is not representing a class action and on whose behalf he is suing. He has not shown that he has suffered over and above other motorists and people that use the road,” Fashola said.

  • Apapa road affecting exports, says DG

    African Centre for Supply Chain (ACSC) Director-General Dr Obiora Madu has said the rejection of agricultural produce overseas will continue  if efforts are not made to improve access roads to the  sea ports.

    Madu expressed displeasure that 37,000 tons of cashew exported to Vietnam were rejected.

    Nigeria exported goods worth $369,718,744,000 (approximately N113.4billion) to Vietnam in 2017, according to data obtained from Vietnam Customs.

    He said the chaos in the  logistics sector  caused  by the  state of the  ports’ access road was not helping the economy to enjoy export growth. This is because exporters keen to capitalise on  the nation’s weakening currency and bumper harvests and booking shipping, are   having difficulty finding the trucks to deliver their goods to port on time because of the state of the ports access roads.

    On the explanation that  37,000 tons of cashew exported to Vietnam were rejected because of high price of the commodity,  Madu  warned  exporters  to seek  proper  education on exports contracts  before shipping  produce out of the country .

    According  to him, new  exporters  need  education  on signing  export  contract  because of  challenges   which are  often accompanied by significant losses due to unplanned delay in the port.

    Madu stressed that Nigerian  exporters must understand  exports , and in general must educate themselves on unique industry matters relevant to selling their goods or services  abroad.

    He said local companies also must meet international requirements and food safety standards, storage, shipping and freight operations they need to move their produce   abroad.

  • Apapa road ’ll be completed on time, says Dangote 

    Apapa road ’ll be completed on time, says Dangote 

    President of Dangote Group Aliko Dangote has assured that the Apapa Port Wharf concrete road under construction by his company, AG Dangote would be delivered on schedule.

    He gave the assurance yesterday when he visited the construction area with Managing Director of AG Dangote Construction Company Mr Ashif Juma .

    The Apapa Port road which is the artery of the nation’s non-oil economy, has been in a state of disrepair over a long period of time with experts claiming that the nation is losing about N20 billion daily owing to the state of dilapidation of the road as imports are trapped in the ports for days as a result of traffic gridlock generated by the bad road.

    Dangote Group, a pan African Conglomerate and a major stakeholder at the ports brokered a tripartite arrangement with Flour Mills, a leading Nigerian Food Company and Nigerian Port Authority, (NPA), taking over the road from the Federal Government and undertaking the reconstruction of the road into a lasting concrete pavement as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

    The road construction in which both NPA and Flour Mills have financial outlay as their contributions while AG Dangote Construction, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is undertaking the construction, is to cost the three partners N4.3 billion

    Dangote said the road will be completed in few months’ time and that Nigerians would be surprised to see the project delivered even before scheduled, saying efforts are being redoubled by his company to ensure quality job and timely completion.

    According to him: by the time the road construction is completed, even some of the advanced countries would not be able to boast of the quality.”

    He explained that what actually delay the take-off of the project was the gas pipeline that has to be relocated to pave the way for unfettered construction work “and having done that, you could see that the work is progressing at a very fast speed.”

    The businessman while relying on the reports of the challenges encountered by the site engineers appealed to the authorities to help see to the disturbing issue of multiple check points being mounted by security agencies and which have been creating long queues of trailers and thus affecting free flow of work on the road project.

    He also explained that his company has agreed with the federal government to do some palliatives on the Mile2 expressway road to ease the traffic congestion and ensure free flow of vehicular movement.

  • OPS decries state of Apapa road, others

    The Organised Private Sector (OPS) has again epressed concerns over the current dilapidated state of Apapa road which has led to traffic gridlock. They stated that the challenge is taking toll on trade facilitation, cost of cargo transportation and overhead cost of businesses in the country.

    A statement by the Director-General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir on behalf of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines & Agriculture (NACCIMA), National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME) and National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI) in Lagos yesterday, lamented that the traffic jam hampers access to the ports, paralyse economic activities, engender loss of man-hour and enormous wastage of fuel..

    “Most worrisome is the that fact that this challenge is also leading to heavy revenue loss to government, too long turnaround time for delivery of cargoes, huge transportation cost, avoidable raw materials stock-out and the inability of companies to meet set production targets,” the statement read in part.

    The group lamented that trucks hired to carry cargoes do not have easy access to the port to lift or deliver cargoes and those lifting cargoes cannot come out of the port because of the long hours of traffic. According to the statement, it now takes between five and eight weeks for the delivery of cargoes to be taken.

    OPS said port users now pay between N350, 000 and N400, 000 as cargo transport cost as against the standard rate of N100, 000 per cargo, adding to operational cost.

    The current business environment has the capacity to hinder profitability and erode the reasonable progress that government has made so far in improving the business operating environment, OPS added.

    The group argued that this may further worsen the rating of the country in the ease of building business index if not urgently addressed.

     

     

    The MAN DG pointed said there is no reason why our ports being the gateway to international trade and flow of cargoes cannot have world class infrastructure, access roads and facilities in line with best practices evidenced by status of ports in China, Dubai, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore.

    He further called on the government to speed up actions that will proffer permanent solutions to this challenge by setting up a taskforce made up of representatives of all stakeholders to strategize on ways and means of resolving the challenge.

    He also called for the creation of alternative route to ease the current pressure on all the stakeholders operating on the maritime value chain.

  • Apapa Road is priority, says Fashola

    Apapa Road is priority, says Fashola

    Repair of the Apapa ports road is a priority to the Federal Government, Minister of Power, Works and Housing Mr Babatunde Fashola has said.

    Speaking with reporters in Abuja at the weekend after the ministry’s retreat, Fashola said arrangements for the deployment of an enduring solution on Wharf Road would soon be concluded.

    Some companies, he said, had agreed to work with government to fix Wharf Road, adding that the design and other requirements for the road were ready.

    What was left now was to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) before seeking the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC)’s approval, the minister said.

    Fashola said: “I just want to appeal to residents of Apapa, to people whose livelihood depends on Apapa, that Apapa is one of the priority roads under our priority of works to save roads that lead to critical ports. We also have Calabar on our radar. But one by one there would be an enduring solution. We have done the design, we have done everything for Apapa, it is ready. It is going to be a concrete road, I believe, that will last another 30 years. So we are close to starting work.”

    Fashola also said the government wanted to be clear whether what the companies were offering was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or they wanted a tax refund for what they were offering, adding that the challenge of inadequate budgetary allocation had affected the roads over the years.

    “Year on year, you will see that the provisions for the budget funding of Apapa and the Tin Can Island and Mile 2 – Oworonshoki Roads, all of which evacuate the Port have not been sufficient really to deal with the cost”, he said.

    Fashola added: “The cost that we are getting from the contractor there is in the region of about N100billion and above and the annual budgetary appropriation that is approved for us is about N7 billion. And then there are debts that we met”.

  • Dangote to reconstruct Apapa Road

    Dangote Construction Company, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, is to spend billions of naira to reconstruct the road leading to the Lagos Ports.

    The conglomerate, it was gathered, took the initiative to repair the road as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS),

    A source close to the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) told The Nation, that the road would be reconstructed from the Apapa Port to join Ijora Bridge at Leventist Bus Stop.

    The project, the official said, has been approved by the Federal Government.

    The General Manager, Western Ports, Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi, said all occupiers of the right of way, including owners of bill boards, have been given notice to remove them.

    He said the Apapa Police Command and the Nigerian Railway Corporation in Apapa are aware of the pending reconstruction.

    Ajayi said a temporary location has been provided under Ijora Bridge for all transport and haulage operators, urging terminal operators, Flour Mills of Nigeria and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigerian (MWUN) to cooperate with the company on the reconstruction.

  • Apapa Road : Senate committee meet stakeholders

    Apapa Road : Senate committee meet stakeholders

    The Senate Committee on Marine Transport yesterday visited the Lagos Port Complex and the Tin-Can Island ports to access the impact of the gridlock on the roads leading to the ports.

    Led by its Chairman and former Zamfara State Governor, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, the committee arrived the Lagos Port Complex at 10.59am.

    The lawmakers experienced the gridlock on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway as they approached the Tin-Can port.

    Their convoy drove against traffic from the Liverpool Under Bridge to access the port.

    After passing through the second gate, the vehicles were stuck amidst container-laden trucks.

    The lawmakers alighted to access the failed sections of the road.

    Addressing reporters and other stakeholders at a forum by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Yerima  said the ongoing construction work at the 500-truck capacity holding bay in front of the Tin-Can port, was put on hold because  the Federal Government owed the contractor N1.5 billion..

    The chairman noted that, though, work at the site was about 95 per cent completed, the contractor pulled out because he was yet to be mobilised by the government.

    He promised that the Federal Government was making efforts to pay up so that work would resume.

     

    “We have seen the situation on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. While we were on the tour, Senator Kabiru Gaya, called the Ministry of Works. He was told that construction work at the Holding Bay at Tin-Can Island was 95 per cent completed. He was also told that the contractor is being owed N1.5 billion.

    “If the money is paid, work would resume and all these trucks will have no cause to continue to park on the road.

    “The park at Tin Can Island is still under construction. That is why you did not see trucks there,” Yerima added.

    The Managing Director of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, the Acting Director-General of NIMASA Pastor Haruna Jauro, Executive Secretary of Shippers Council Hassan Bello and other stakeholders identified lack of rail system, indiscriminate licencing of tank farms, lack of holding bays, non-usage of barges, unorthodox behaviour of truck drivers and other factors are responsible for the gridlock.