Despite all efforts to stop them, tankers and containerised trucks have for years converted Lagos roads and bridges to illegal parks, causing intractable traffic gridlock and throwing commuters and residents into untold hardship. But, the Lagos State Government and stakeholders are determined to dislodge them through ‘Operation Restore Sanity on Lagos Roads’ which begins in the early hours of today. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE, PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU and ROBERT EGBE report.
For many years, commuters and residents of Apapa and environs have suffered horrendous bedlam. No thanks to indiscriminate parking by drivers and owners of articulated vehicles moving in and out of the sea ports.
They had watched helplessly as truck and tanker drivers took over all the routes leading into the axis, leaving their vehicles on the bridges and streets, thus blocking access routes, unmindful of the implications of their actions.
Gradually, Apapa, which hitherto, boomed with businesses during the day and a beehive of social activities during nightfall, started crumbling. Business concerns started relocating their headquarters off the area, while nightclubs and other relaxation spots began to wind up. Tenants who could afford relocation started moving out as the once booming region gradually lost its steam.
Little care was paid to the cries of the residents until the truck drivers developed further wings, stretching to occupy major highways and bridges. From Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, they extended to Western Avenue into Mobil Road and then Ikorodu Road up to Eko Bridge, Lagosians wasted several hours in gridlock orchestrated by these articulated vehicles.
Aside the traffic, it was gathered that most of these drivers, who were usually armed with knives and other dangerous weapons, usually attack road users at night, dispossessing them of valuables.
Tales have been told of how pregnant women being rushed to hospitals died in Apapa traffic because of the blocked access. There have also been instances where motorists suffered traffic-induced heart attacks and died on steering.
However, each time the state government tried to rid them off the bridges and major roads, the drivers, particularly, those under the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), who embark on national strike, thus leading to fuel scarcity and forcing the government to relax enforcement.
The Nation learnt that the traffic gridlock worsened on Monday following a 10-day suspension of four major shipping lines by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The suspension which took effect from July 14 affected four major firms – Maersk, Cosco Shipping, APS and Lansal.
Others factors include bad roads, port concessioning and alleged over-charging of truck drivers by port authorities as demurrage, among others.
Residents, business
owners frustrated
The indiscriminate parking articulated vehicles on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway affect Oliver Eze in two major ways – they block access to his electronics shop at Berger area, off the expressway, thereby warding off customers and they cost him friends and neighbours at his Kirikiri Town, Apapa resident.
Eze told The Nation that some of his neighbours, who could not cope with the chaotic traffic, have moved out.
He said: “Some houses in my area are empty, because of the roads.”
Emeka Azubuike’s car dealership is just a few metres away. His problems are similar.
Azubuike said: “Everywhere is blocked. Making sales has not been easy since these trucks started parking here some months ago. Buyers used to stop here by themselves, walk in and buy vehicles. But, now, we have to go out and persuade them to come and look at the cars. After buying, we beg and beg the tanker drivers before they allow us to move customers’ cars out of this place.”
Eze and Azubuike’s plight, just like that of other Lagosians, is the result of the about 13,000 trucks and tankers parked illegally in parts of the nation’s commercial hub.
Tankers’ plight
Even the tanker drivers are not happy about the situation. But, they are helpless.
Godwin Efiko stood beside his container-laden Mac Truck on the Mile 2 section of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, inward Tin Can Island/Apapa. He peered at the endless rows of articulated vehicles parked bumper to bumper ahead of and behind him.
“I joined the queue at Second Rainbow Bus Stop on Wednesday morning and I have been here since Wednesday night,” the Abi, Cross River State-born native said yesterday with a sigh.
Efiko’s destination is the same as other trucks’: the Tin Can or Apapa ports.
But it does not look like he or any of the other drivers around him will get there anytime soon. Some of them were seen chatting on the pavement beside their trucks or buying food from hawkers.
“May God help us,” Efiko said, clambering back into the vehicle to begin another round of waiting.
His closest neighbour, who identified himself only as Moroof, was only a few metres away in the next vehicle.
Moroof’s left foot was on the window of his truck as he leaned into his seat, listening to the radio. He seemed resigned to his fate.
According to him, he joined the queue on Sunday at Cele Bus Stop.
Pointing at the distance ahead of him, Moroof said: “If they can help us to fix Berger Road, the line will move faster.”
Causes of gridlock
According to the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Taiwo Olufemi Salaam, there are 65 tank farms in the Apapa axis, each loading between 100-200 tankers every day.
Salaam said: “Imagine each of the 65 tank farms loading 200 tankers daily, that is about 13,000 tankers every day. The other illegal activity the tank farm operators do in that axis is that if they have the capacity to load 200 tankers, they would go and collect money from drivers and call in 500 tankers and where are you loading the 300 extra. The remaining 300 would be on the road.
“We have tried so many times to sanitise the system but what we have seen is that this is a syndicated issue. What we have seen is that people are staying in Abuja and causing us problems in Lagos. We don’t care anymore; we are determined to clean them up; let them invite us to Abuja so that we would be able to sort out this menace.”
Lagos talks tough
To Salaam, the vehicular menace was unacceptable. H said: “The situation at the ports which has locked up the roads and bridges in Lagos is totally unacceptable to this government. The Lagos State Government has given them a long rope and it seems they are taking us for granted.
“A situation where people would not be able to get to their homes and spend long hours on the road is unacceptable. They have given their sovereignty to the government to protect them and that is what we are determined to do.
“A situation whereby accidents occur at will with all the monies we are spending on equipment and road infrastructure to reduce crashes on our roads is unacceptable.”
According to him, the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) are to blame.
Salaam said: “The problem is with the Nigeria Shippers Council and the Ports Authority. They are the regulators but it looks as if they are helpless to check this crisis.
“They have two main entries; the first entry has six gates and the second has eight gates at each point. They locked all but one, so, at each of the two entries, they are using only one gate.
“Last week they did not operate at all because they had an issue with the workers who went on strike, and that led to the backflow along Western Avenue and Ikorodu Road. As we speak now, that thing has back flowed up to Iyana Itire. What will happen tomorrow, only God can really know.
“Therefore, we need to take the bull by the horn, and deal with them. By tomorrow night, by 00.00 hour, which is 12 midnight, we are going to start operation.”
End in sight
Despite the hardships, the government has assured of respite in the nearest future. Salaam said: “We are cleaning them up. By 12 midnight on Thursday (yesterday), we are going to begin ‘Operation Clean Lagos Up’.
“We are going to clean Lagos of these tankers and trucks menace on our roads and bridges. We will not let the cat out of the bag, but definitely we are doing something and by Sunday night, Lagosians would be able to move freely anywhere thy want to go within the state.
“We as a government cannot go and operate at the port because it is a federal territory. We are not the one clearing the shipping companies. All the shipping companies are under the Shippers Council and apart from the dry cargoes, we also have the wet cargoes.”
Restoring sanity
The police and relevant stakeholders also assured Lagos residents that steps were being taken to address the lockdown occasioned by the activities of the truck drivers.
This assurance came with the announcement of a joint stakeholder operation, ‘Restore Sanity,’ billed to have kicked-off at midnight.
The joint operation was one of the decisions reached at a stakeholders’ meeting on the lingering bedlam triggered by the movements of articulated vehicles in and outside Apapa.
Addressing reporters after the meeting yesterday, Police Commissioner Imohimi Edgal said 1,000 cops would be deployed for the operation.
The meeting, which was held at the command headquarters in Ikeja, had in attendance representatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Amalgamation of Container Truck Owners Association, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), National Association of Transport Operators (NATO), Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), among others.
Aside the 1,000 policemen, LASTMA would supply 500 officials, FRSC volunteered 120 personnel, NSCDC will supply 100, 250 personnel from the military and 50 each from NUPENG, NARTO and amalgamated truck owners’ association.
Also, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) would provide necessary equipment for the operation as well as deploy 20 officials throughout the exercise.
An unacceptable
national disaster
Edgal described the Apapa gridlock as a national disaster that has raised major concerns, adding that the operation was necessary to prevent complete breakdown of law and order.
He attributed the situation to the sorry state of federal roads, bridges linking the ports, port operational problems, activities of tank farms and shipping lines, who do not have holding bays as stipulated by law, diversion orchestrated by ongoing construction, among others.
Edgal said it was gratifying that all stakeholders unanimously agreed that the operation should commence with immediate effect, while the NPA and other relevant agencies work to fashion out permanent solution to the issues within the Ports which gave rise to the gridlock.
He said: “Everybody is aware of the madness going on on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway that has been completely blocked by trailers and tankers. The same problem we have on our bridges in Western Avenue, Iganmu and Apapa axis.
“However, it would be irresponsible of us to continue to watch and allow Lagosians go through these period of untold hardship without coming up with strong palliative, security measures and strong joint effort to at least, ease the traffic problem and allow for free flow, while agencies that are responsible for these problems sit together like I hear they are doing currently and fashion out permanent solutions.
“We have held series of meetings between yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) and we have come up immediately with a resolve to start ‘Operation Restore Sanity On Lagos Roads’.
“This operation which kicks off by early hours of Friday (today) is intended to move trucks and containers from our roads, highways and bridges to designated locations.
“Thereafter, inventory will be made. The shipping companies themselves will be called to send their representatives to take inventory of these containers and at least have records that the containers have been taken to the designated locations so that they can continue their activities from there.
“One thousand policemen would be deployed to move trucks and containers from bridges and roads to designated locations for ease of traffic. This operation needs a lot of manpower and requires cooperation of all sectors in charge of transport.
“Between now and Monday, there will be free movement of motorists and Lagosians will have easy access to their works and homes.
“On Monday, we will go to another level of engagement with relevant authorities so that we do not have a repeat.”
The police commissioner appealed to maritime workers to shelve their planned strike, adding that they should put the country first.
LASTMA’s General Manager, Olawale Musa, assured that normalcy and order would soon be restored, adding that his personnel had fully been mobilised.
He said: “Just to tell Lagosians that as a government, we are very responsive and for a situation that is beyond our control and not our doing, we are nonetheless making all efforts to ease the problem.
“We are on ground and we are going to ensure that sanity is restored on our roads. If the people are suffering, we are also suffering because for me to get to Apapa is a big problem to access the road but with all stakeholders coming together to solve these problems, we assure Lagosians that very soon we are going to restore order.”
Moving forward
National President of AMARTO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi backed the government’s efforts to solve the problem, noting bad roads as a major constraint to their operations.
Ogungbemi said: “Virtually all roads within and outside Lagos State are very bad and we are hereby calling on the National Assembly to amend all relevant laws that would make it possible for the Federal Government to cede all its roads within the state to the state government. If this is done, the state would be able to ensure adequate maintenance.
“Secondly, the environment under which we operate is very volatile and unconducive for truck owners and drivers. Our drivers spend time to come to Lagos ports and stay on the roads for between four days and two to three weeks just to gain entry into the ports and another three weeks to exit.
“They don’t sleep well and weariness often leads to accidents on the roads. Because of the extremely unfriendly environment in which they work, some of our drivers are hardly differentiated from lunatics, or like someone who escaped from the prison yard. Their clothes are often dirty and crimson with grease.
FRSC Sector Commander Hyginus Omeje said stakeholders had agreed to free service lanes from Oshodi to Apapa of all hindrances.
He added: “We are going to have the trucks on queue and they are going to be on the express section of the road so that people living on the expressway, such as Oshodi, Cele, Ijesha, Isolo and Okota among other, would have easy access in and out of the service lanes.
“We have been able to identify some holding bays, whether private or concessioned. The truth is any available spaces we see we are going to push those vehicles there.
“Over five holding bays have been identified and some of them are being currently used as a private concern, but we are not going to be bogged by those details for now as we are concerned about clearing those vehicles off the roads. We need to address this because this is a national issue now.”
A logistics and maritime expert, Tunji Olaosun, urged the government to resolve the challenges that make ports’ operations cumbersome.
Olaosun said: “As an operator, who has once been an insider, I can tell you that we have all the answers to resolving the traffic gridlock at Apapa. The answer lies with the Shippers Council. If we let the Shippers Council work, we would resolve the bottlenecks within the ports and this would have an effect on the roads. In a short time you will discover that the traffic bottlenecks would be tackled and Apapa would return to its old golden age.”
