The two major routes to Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city, Ijora Bridge and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, have remained largely free for motorists to drive through five days after the trucks which ‘live’ on the two routes vacated, giving motorists and residents some level of relief and comfort.
The trucks have, in the past five years, made those two routes and the adjoining roads their parking bay. They went off the routes on the eve of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections which have given President Muhammadu Buhari another chance to preside over the affairs of Nigeria for the next four years.
The largely collapsed Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, as at yesterday morning, was an easy drive-through all the way from Cele Bus Terminal on the expressway down to Berger Cement Bus Stop which has never been the case on that that axis in the last five years.
“The trucks have left the road because they want to start work (reconstruction) on it”, a Danfo (commercial bus) driver explained to BusinessDay, adding that the trucks drivers had to vacate the roads before being forced out of the road by the contractor.
But Adedamola Kuti, the Federal Controller of Works, South West Zone, dismissed that speculation, saying that if the trucks were off the expressway, it could be for reasons of the presidential and national assembly elections. “Yes, reconstruction work has started on the expressway by reason of the flag-off in November last year.
“However, whatever is happening now are preliminary stages of work which are off-site”, he said, disclosing that the reconstruction work, which will be undertaken by the Dangote Group, would be done in three stages. The first stage will begin from Creek Road to Cele Bus Terminal; the second from Cele to Anthony Bus Stop, and the third from Anthony to Oworonshoki.
Other stakeholders also adduced reasons for the free Apapa roads. Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold Link Investment Limited, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that business activities at the nation’s seaport have slowed down because people were being careful due to the uncertainties surrounding the elections.
Anekebe added that the newly introduced call-up system for trucks using APM Terminals in Apapa port has also helped in reducing movement of trucks in and out of Apapa. He also alluded to the rumour making the round that the contractor to whom the construction works of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway was awarded to, was perfecting arrangements to mobilise to site.
“The uncertainty surrounding the just concluded elections has slowed business activities at the ports. Presently, Customs Licensed Agents and freight forwarders do not come to the ports early enough to do business and when they do, they also try to leave Apapa environment very early, due to fear of likely post election crisis,” Anakebe said.
He cited instance of his company which took delivery of consignment in Apapa port on Tuesday, and it was not easy because Customs officers were in a hurry to shut down for the day.
“The newly introduced call-up system is now being used in the port, adding that he gave his trucker a document by 2pm on Tuesday and before 10pm the same day the truck was able to load the container unlike before when it takes up to one week for the truck to gain access into the port. This is a very good development in our journey to an efficient port system and we hope that it will be sustained”.
Confirming this, Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) said in a telephone interview that the exit of trucks on Apapa roads was due to the measure put in place by the port authority in collaboration with truck associations to control the movement of trucks going into the ports to load.
“The authorities want to be attending to only trucks that are coming from their garages and not the ones on the roads. So, we have been made to understand that if your truck is parked on the road or bridges, nobody will attend to you and they have asked all the trucks to go back to their garages and wait for the manual call-up,” Ogungbemi said.
Continuing, he said: “It is still very new policy and a pilot scheme. The call-up system is for all the terminals in both Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports and there is no specific garage where the trucks would park because every truck has its own park. Trucks park on the road because there was no system to regulate and inform truckers when to come to port to do business.”
“We are happy that the NPA is providing a means that would regulate the number of trucks that will be coming to Apapa with the introduction of manual call-up system. Though, we wait for the time when NPA will introduce the electronic call-up that is globally accepted”, he added.
But Tayo Aboyeji, Lagos zonal chairman of Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), says the reduced number of petroleum tankers on the roads was because the tank farms at Folawiyo, Apapa, have not been loading fuel for some time now.
According to Aboyeji, the tank farms at Folawiyo were affected by the permanent occupation of Creek Road, Apapa, by trailers making their way to the Apapa port. “So tankers can’t reach the tank farms to load products,” he said.
He explained that in the last two to three years, new tank farms have opened in other parts of the country, including Calabar in Cross River, Ogera in Delta, Suleija in Niger and Benin, in Edo thereby reducing the pressure on Lagos.
“Over three years ago, we were loading 800 to 1,000 tankers in Lagos, but now it is about 200 tanker. Since the Federal Government stopped granting licenses for tank farms in Lagos, investors have been looking elsewhere. So now we have less tankers going to Apapa unlike three years ago,” said Aboyeji.
Afolabi Olufemi, the general secretary of the NUPENG, who also spoke on the development, attributed it to the repair of a section of the Liverpool Road, Apapa and the opening of a parking lot at Ogere, Ogun State. He said several tankers were parked at Ogere from where they are allowed into Lagos under a structured arrangement, adding that the challenge still being experienced in Apapa is not the creation of petroleum tankers but container-carrying trailers driving to the Tincan and Apapa ports.
CHUKA UROKO, JOSHUA BASSEY & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
