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Tag: Apapa

  • Apapa flags-off distribution of cash palliatives to residents

    Apapa flags-off distribution of cash palliatives to residents

    Apapa Local Government has kicked off the second phase of its cash palliative distribution to its residents.

    The event, which held at the council headquarters, attracted hundreds of shortlisted beneficiaries.

    The council chairman, Mrs. Idowu Adejumoke Sebanjo, said the exercise was to cushion the hardship occasioned by the federal government fuel subsidy removal.

    According to her, the second phase of the exercise, which commenced on the 1st of August, had to be held physically, following doubts in some quarters about the genuineness of the exercise, which was initially done by transfers.

    Read Also; Reprisal attack and fleeing Imo communities

    “We thought of what to do to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal. To this effect, we formed a committee of elders, party members and civil servants. We agreed that we would not share food, but give cash of N10,000 to 1000 families in two tranches, starting with 500 persons. So the same persons will receive N10,000 twice, after which we move to other persons.

    “This occasion is the second phase and we’re doing it in accordance with government’s directive to reach out to people irrespective of party, tribe or ward affiliations. We are also reaching out to the elderly, who cannot come out. As a matter of fact, some elderly have been reached at home.”

    Sebanjo said the council also embarked on a subsidised N100 per drop transportation scheme within the local government, to help ease the burden of movement.

    Sebanjo, in company of the council House Leader, Gbenga Fowowe and Council Manager, Mrs Mosunmola personally distributed cash to some beneficiaries. She also urged the people to maintain a clean environment and eschew street trading in accordance with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s directives.

  • Apapa gridlock: LASG kicks off traffic intervention

    Apapa gridlock: LASG kicks off traffic intervention

    • Appeals to stakeholders to embrace E-call up project 
    • Offers alternative parking space for trucks

    The Lagos State Government has appealed to Stakeholders to embrace the E-Call Up System, stating that this initiative remains the best solution to eliminate gridlock along the Apapa-Tincan corridor.

     The government has also directed the immediate removal of all stationary trucks from the Apapa-Tincan axis and is providing alternative trucks parking spaces.

     At a meeting in the Ministry of Transportation, Alausa, Ikeja on Thursday, the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Oluwaseun Osiyemi, stressed that the cooperation of every stakeholder is vital to the success of the initiative.

    He pointed out that the situation at the port and its access roads has increased traffic gridlock, slowed down business, and worsened the condition of the roads, leaving them in a deplorable state.

     Osiyemi emphasized that truck parks have been provided to ensure orderliness and strict adherence to traffic regulations. He also noted that discipline on the part of the Stakeholders was paramount.

     Responding to suggestions by Stakeholders present at the meeting, Osiyemi assured them that all proposed ideas will be looked into and acted upon when the need arises. He also affirmed that the dry cargo section of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ABAT) Truck Park at Orile is ready for use, while the wet cargo section of the park will be completed in few weeks.

    Read Also: Tinubu urges US court to reverse order asking Chicago University to release academic records

     In the same vein, the commissioner instructed the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority Personnel to station themselves at the base of the bridges and work with the locals to ensure compliance. He assured that palliative works are being carried out all over the State to keep the roads motorable during this rainy season.

     Earlier, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Hon. Sola Giwa, stated that the Governor has given the Ministry of Transportation the mandate to ensure the free flow of traffic in the Apapa axis. He reiterated the need for all Stakeholders to embrace the E-Call Up System and mentioned that a monitoring team will also be set up to ensure full compliance, with a warning that any vehicle found permanently stationed along the corridor will be removed.

     Giwa further revealed that the ABAT Park made available by the State Government as well as other identified parks have enough space to park trucks coming to Lagos for the purpose of accessing the Ports. He therefore calls for patriotism on the part of Stakeholders to fulfill the mandate given by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to rid the Apapa-Tincan corridor of traffic.

     ‘We, therefore, call for willingness from Stakeholders to collaborate with the Government to streamline the Apapa-Tincan corridor, we must work together to clear it’, Giwa declared.

     While thanking stakeholders present for their affirmation in finding solution to the happenings at Apapa, the Permanent Secretary, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola urged Truckers to take advantage of truck parks available for ease of parking.

     In response, stakeholders agreed to partner with the state government to implement solutions that will enhance the free flow of traffic.

    Some of the stakeholders present include; Call Up Technology Ltd, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Police, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), the Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association (DAPMAN), the Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), among others.

  • Lagos empowers 3000 women with free skills, startup equipment

    Lagos State government has empowered over 3000 women and youths with skills and startup equipment in four different locations namely: Victoria Island, Ebute-Meta, Apapa and Ojo local government areas in the state courtesy of the Ministry of Women and Poverty Alleviation.

    Speaking at the closing ceremony of the four-weeks short term skills acquisition training for faith based women and cultural organisations held at Imo Liason Office, Victoria Island and Answar-Ur-Deen, Ebute Meta respectively, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Mrs. Cecilia Bolaji Dada, pointed out that the objective of the empowerment programme is to train women, girls and men alike in various skills and vocations for the purpose of economic empowerment and lifting their status from the state of dependency to self-reliance.

    “There is dearth of ‘white collar’ jobs, it is in realisation of this economic reality that the Lagos State government established 17 functional skills acquisition centres around the state,” she said.

    “The present administration under the able leadership of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has taken women empowerment as one of its focal policies in order to mitigate the effects of poverty prevalent amongst women, we realise that when women are economically empowered, there is less tension in the home front and obvious reduction in domestic violence,” she said.

    In his goodwill message, the Liaison Officer, Imo State, Hon. Anthony Abili while commending Lagos State for empowering Imo women who resides in the state, enjoined the beneficiaries to maximise the opportunity.

    While addressing the beneficiaries at Ansar-Ur-Deen, Ebute-Meta Centre, Chief Imam, Abdul-Jamiu urged them to put the training learnt into practice.

  • How to ‘kill’ a writer

    The above title should actually read: ‘How to kill Hardball,’ but among the first learned wisdom of a newspaper editor is to be crafty with his headlines and titles. In order words, apart from sculpting a headline to best tell the story, you must know when to ‘manage’ the headlines so it does not tell or reveal the whole story.

    This is what we have done with the above headline. The story is about the trucks armada on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

    As all Lagosians probably know, the scourge of articulated vehicles stretching from the ports in Apapa back into all the major roads in the city is now a sustained nightmare. For more than five years, containers-bearing trucks of all sizes, fuel tankers and indeed all manner of trucks servicing the four ports of Apapa have found convenient parking space on the any roads and bridges leading to the ports.

    This of course has imposed unspeakable horror on Lagos commuters as the already poor traffic situation of Lagos has become schizophrenic.

    Now how does this situation endanger the life of a writer, you might already be asking? Good question. Well, apart from being caught up in the attendant traffic like many other residents, journalists bear the added brunt of having to write about the self-induce malady almost every week.

    Hardball for instance must have written about this dark phenom on this page about half a dozen times. In the same manner editorials have been written over a dozen times. News reports, features and analyses have been put out ad nauseam. How could anyone write about the same problem for five years without either losing his mind or body even?

    Yet the matter remains there and like an evil mole, spreading in all directions. The current update on the Apapa ports trucks armada is that operatives of the task force set up to create order and safe corridor for commuters has grown into a huge extortion machine.

    According to a report in Vanguard newspaper which has its headquarters right in the simmering vortex of the morass: “Investigations revealed that the task force officials have converted the sordid situation into a bribe-taking venture, thereby compounding the gridlock…

    “A number of checkpoints have reportedly been set up from the Mile 2 Bridge for task force officials to extort money from desperate truck drivers…

    “At these extortion points, task force officials collect between N10000 and N15000 from each truck driver to allow them park around the area.”

    As elders in Igboland say, when you are treating hunchback and the patient’s tummy keeps growing, both the medicine man and the patient may well be in danger.

    So, Hardball writing about a five-year old madness could easily be afflicted abi?

  • Apapa Truck Park ready April

    The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr Adedamola Kuti, on Friday said that the Apapa trailer park project in the state would be completed before the end of April.

    Kuti told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the shoreline protection aspect of the project was 25 per cent completed, adding that the entire project had achieved 94 per cent completion.

    “We expect that the work will be completed this April and we should be handing the trailer park over to the NPA – Nigerian Port Authority – by end of this month.

    “The materials we were waiting for have arrived and being cleared in the port as we speak.

    “We have already completed 25 per cent of the shoreline protection which has been the major aspect holding us. The entire project is 94 per cent completed,” he told NAN.

    Kuti said that facilities, including toilets and bathrooms, police post, ticketing section and boreholes to make the park comfortable for use, had been completed.

    Read Also: NLC resolves 11 years old agric union dispute

    On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, he debunked media reports about variations in the project’s cost and delivery time.

    He said that additional works such as foot bridges, under passes, toll plazas and walkways were added to the project due to springing up of settlements on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway corridor.

    Kuti told NAN that there were no variations in the cost of the project but the additional works increased its cost.

    He said that the additional works, costing about N64 billion, made the contract sum to increase to about N134 billion.

    He said that the Federal Executive Council extended the project’s completion period by four years – which would be 2021/2022 – because of the additional work.

    “`This additional works cost money and must be added to the cost of the job,” he said.

    He said that the contractors for the project were on site and that the work was progressing.

    He appealed to motorists on the road and other construction zones to be patient and obey all road signs and traffic rules.

    “Right now, we are working around the MFM and RCCG area – that is Kilometers 15 and 26, we do hope that work will be completed soon on those sections.

    “We want to appeal to people to be patient as they use the road, bearing in mind that it is a construction zone; they should be very careful when they drive.

    “There are traffic officers that control the traffic; motorists should obey them as well as traffic rules and regulations; they require a lot of patience,” he said.

    According to him, there are no alternative routes to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at the moment because the Ikorodu-Sagamu is also under construction.

  • Freight forwarders deplore port concession

    The All Ports Unified Freight Forwarding Practitioners Association is worried about cargo facilitation, import and export, at Lagos Ports. It blamed shipping companies and terminal operators for what it called “frustration of export  trade,” alleging that additional levies are imposed on importers aside requisite fees. To the body, this leads to delay in exportation of goods from the terminals.

    Its President, Mike Okorie, told reporters at Apapa that the port concession agreement between the Federal Government and the concessionaires had not achieved much in addressing the bottlenecks in cargo clearance at the port.

    According to Okorie, exports are rejected overseas because of the delay caused by shipping lines and terminal operators.

    He added that due to lack of adequate infrastructure at the terminals, some goods got spoilt while on transit due to delayed take-off by shipping lines.

    “We have members who engage in exportation of food stuff and if these commodities  stay long before shipping commences, then it is a problem. Take for instance, beans; this is one commodity that is supposed to be given easy access at the port for onward shipping overseas; but the port conces-sionaires and shipping lines with their frivolous charges make things difficult for us,” Okorie said.

    He added that beans was very peculiar because most of the cargoes laden with beans were returned to the country for being in unacceptable state, a situation caused by the delay such cargo must have experienced at Nigerian ports.

    He alleged that shipping companies rip-off indigenous exporters and freight forwarders with arbitrary charges. He added that export could equate import only if the government would encourage shippers through policies that boost international trade.

    “We are not here to indict anybody but the truth is that government should encourage exportation,” he said.

    Okorie, who also frowned at the gridlock along the port corridors, said his association has concluded plans to engage the government on how to address some of the anomalies.

    One of the areas to focus on, he explained, is for the government to inject life into the operational activities in the eastern ports. When this is done, he explained, it will help in striking a balance across ports in the country, create competitiveness and enabling business environment.

    “It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to make all ports in Nigeria viable and  competitive,” he submitted.

  • Security not responsible for voter apathy, says Lagos CP

    Lagos Police Commissioner Zubairu Muazu on Saturday denied that observed voter apathy in some areas of the state was connected to lack of security presence during the presidential election.

    Violence sprung up in some polling units in the state during the March 23 Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections following the disruption of voting exercises by hoodlums.

    But the commissioner who toured the state during election, told reporters that watertight security was provided for this Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections to ensure voters’ safety.

    Muazu, alongside his boss Lawal Shehu, the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone Two, toured Oshodi, Okota, Ijora, Apapa and Surulere areas of the state, said he was satisfied with the professionalism of security operatives deployed for the exercise.

    Read also: Poor turnout in Alimosho

    “It is not true that voters did not come out because of fear or insecurity. We provided adequate security and have been assuring electorates to come out and vote. We had assured that security measures will be doubled and also ensured that armed policemen were stationed not far from polling units to wade off miscreants.

    “So far, the exercise has been peaceful. We have not had any issues. We have made adequate plans to contain any post-election violence though we do not envisage any. We also have security operatives on standby who would be deployed if the need arise.

    “We are back from convoy patrol of the polling units. The next phase will be to move from local governments to state collation centre.

    “Like I said, we have made adequate arrangement to ensure that we re-inforce those polling centers and we cannot expect any problems.”

  • Our plan to decongest Apapa road, by truck owners

    Truck owners have unveiled their plan to decongest the port access roads at Apapa, Lagos.

    They said plans were at an advanced stage to ensure that the roads were not used as parking lot.

    Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Chairman Remi Ogungbemi said a new regime requiring only trucks with letters to move to the ports was being put in place.

    According to him, truck drivers and owners will be undergoing training on how to get the call-up letters before going to the port.

    Any truck without such letter will be parked at the holding bays or garages to avoid congesting the roads, Ogungbemi said.

    He frowned on extortion of money from members at ports by security agents.

    Ogungbemi said members had been told not to bow to any form of intimidation by security agents operating on the port access roads.

    Ogungbemi said despite the denial by security agents, the unlawful payments were still going on under coercion.

    “Each truck is made to pay between N80,000 and N100,000 before entering the ports and this happens more at night. We are now urging all our members to stop the payment no matter the intimidation,” he said.

    He assured members that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was behind the body in this move. He sought members’ cooperation to guarantee success in stopping the unlawful payments, which, according to him, has increased the cost of doing business in the port.

    “We are aware some people do benefit from a state of confusion like what obtains on port roads. Such people will not want the confusion to stop, but we are determined to achieve success,” Ogunremi said.

     

  • Ships conveying petrol, other commodities, expected at Lagos ports

    The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is expecting 36 ships to bring petroleum products, food items and other goods to Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports in Lagos, from Dec. 6 to Dec. 29.

    The NPA made this known in its daily publication `Shipping Position’ made available to newsmen in Lagos on Thursday.

    Read Also:‘How petrol attendant, supervisor planned robbery’

     

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that six of the 36 ships will sail in with petrol.

    The other 30 ships are carrying buckwheat, general cargo, ethanol, aviation fuel, steel, diesel, sugar and containers of different goods.

    According to the NPA, 16 ships have arrived the ports waiting to berth with bulk fertiliser, general containers and petrol.

  • Police arraign teenager for sexually abusing seven year-old girl

    The police on Thursday, arraigned a 15-year-old teenager,  who allegedly sexually abused a seven-year-old girl in an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court.

    The accused, who lives at  No. Obanta St., GRA, Apapa, Lagos, is being charged with sexual abuse.

    The prosecutor, Insp Raphael Donny told the court that the accused committed the offence on Oct. 26 at 4 p. m. at No. 4 Obanta St., GRA, Apapa, Lagos.

    Donny alleged that the accused lured the girl into a garage outside their compound and abused her.

    Read Also: Police arraign businessman for raping a minor

    The offence, he said is contrary to the provisions of  Section 28 of Child Rights Law of Lagos State 2015, (Revised)

    He pleaded not guilty of the charges.

    Chief Magistrate B. O. Osunsemi, in her ruling, admitted to the accused, to bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum.

    Osunsemi ordered that the sureties must be gainfully employed with an evidence of three years tax payment to the Lagos State Government and have their addresses verified by the court.

    She adjourned the case until Dec. 19 for hearing.