Respite underway as stakeholders agree on measures to end Apapa gridlock

Government and stakeholders have finally reached firm agreement on measures to rid the Apapa area of Lagos of its harrowing traffic gridlock.

The stakeholders agreed at a meeting yesterday in Apapa, that the hundreds of  fuel tankers which flood the area to lift fuel from tank farms for onward distribution across the country, be removed from the area to allow for the completion of a trailer park under construction there.

The trailer park, when completed, will accommodate many of the tankers which typically park on the roads, obstructing the flow of traffic. It was further agreed that henceforth, only tankers which have orders and have been called up, would be allowed into Apapa.

This is to put a stop to the obstruction caused by prospecting and unscheduled tankers.

Also, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) are to regulate fuel distribution to private jetties outside Apapa, including those in the Coconut area, as well as those in Mosimi, Ejigbo, Ibadan and Ilorin, from where tankers would lift fuel, instead of all converging in Apapa.

The meeting which was chaired by Sylvester Monye,  chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Monitoring, Performance and Evaluation, who represented the Federal Government, had most of the stakeholders in attendance, including the Lagos State government, which was represented by Kayode Opeifa, the state Commissioner for Transportation.

Others were the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), National Association of Road Transport Owners, Federal Ministry of Works (FMW), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and Apapa residents, among others.

In his opening remark, Monye observed that the aim of the meeting was to resolve the traffic gridlock, stressing that Borini Prono, the Italian contractor in charge of trailer park construction at Tin-Can Island second gate, has been ordered to return to site without delay.

The contractor, with the support and supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works, should create access into the trailer park, which has capacity to take about 320 trailers off the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

In order to enable the contractor carry out the Federal Government order, NUPENG, PTD, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) and NARTO, agreed to take their tankers and trucks off the expressway within 48 hours.

The stakeholders also agreed that NPA and NSC should strengthen the existing call-up system which would also help to regulate the volume of trucks on the road, mandating both agencies to ensure compliance and to fast-track  turn-around in cargo delivery at the ports.

Apparently traumatised by the siege on residents and businesses in and around Apapa by tankers and drivers, which has made movement in the area a nightmare, the stakeholders agreed that these measures should be carried out immediately.

Frank Aigbogun, the Publisher/CEO of BusinessDay Newspaper , which is located in Apapa, lamented that the truck owners and operators of the numerous tank farms were mindlessly carrying out their business without consideration for other businesses and lives of the residents.

Aigbogun wondered why the tanker and trailer owners should be waiting for the government to provide parking lots for them, when they were doing their private businesses like anyone else.

He noted that apart from putting the lives of residents and other stakeholders at risk, the activities of these operators had degraded the environment, sent away many businesses and reduced property values to an abysmal level.

Opeifa assured of the Lagos State Government’s commitment to ensuring that there was an end to the unfortunate situation in Apapa, which he said was fast becoming a national disaster and an embarrassment, stressing that it was possible for government to use force to get the tankers and trailers off the roads, but that they wanted to carry everybody along in their plans and actions.

CHUKA UROKO & AMAKA ANAGOR