The Senate Committee on Works, on Friday in Lagos, mandated the federal ministry of works to complete and open for use the Trailer Park being constructed along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.
The committee, which gave the order at an emergency stakeholders meeting on decongesting the Apapa gridlock, stressed, specifically, that the park should be ready on Friday, May 3, 2019.
“We are here as part of our oversight functions because the lingering situation in Apapa has become a national disgrace”, said Kabiru Gaya, committee chairman, who led other members, including Bananas Gemade, to the meeting that was well attended by relevant stakeholders.
The Trailer Park, on which construction work started about eight years ago, is aimed to decongest the expressway by serving as holding bay for trucks making their way into the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
On completion, the park is expected to take away from the expressway about 400 trailers.
Gaya instructed both the federal ministry of works and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which is to manage the park, to quickly work out modalities on how the park was to be run before the completion date.
In addition, NPA was to work out a functional call up system that would ensure that trucks influx into Apapa was stopped completely.
“What is happening in Apapa is a national embarrassment; we have received several reports on how residents of Apapa sleep outside because they cannot access their houses; many businesses have been forced to either relocate from Apapa or close down completely. We cannot afford to allow that to continue to happen,” Gaya assured.
Other stakeholders at the meeting, especially truck owners, blamed the NPA and the shipping companies for the problems in Apapa. They pointed out inefficient services and deliberate extortion as major problems causing congestion at the ports.
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The extortion by security agencies serving as members of the taskforce on the Apapa roads and bridges, coupled with too many checkpoints mounted by the Customs and Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) were also mentioned as causes of of gridlock.
The Senate committee which will be back in Lagos for the opening of the Trailer Park on Friday next week also mandated NPA to explore the possibility of opening up the Lilipond trailer park to take some trucks off the road.
