The chaotic situation in Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city, was further compounded on Thursday when policemen from the Presidential Task Team (PTT) charged with the responsibility of easing the movement of trucks in and out of the ports clashed with truck drivers, leaving at least one person dead and property, including vehicles, burnt.
The unfortunate incident serves as a wake-up call on both the federal and Lagos State governments on the need to evolve a more pragmatic, permanent and sustainable solution to the problems bedevilling the port city.
“Presidential orders cannot solve the Apapa problem,” said Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners.
Apapa, a N20-billion-a-day economy, is arguably a goldmine, being the most viable source of non-oil revenue to the Federal Government and even Lagos State where it is domiciled. Apapa accounts for about 75 percent of all import and export activities in the country. It is what makes Nigerian Customs tick in terms of revenue generation.
But Apapa is a very challenging environment where traffic congestion and uncontrolled activities of truck drivers and other unregulated marine activities have not only degraded the environment and killed businesses, but also made access to homes by residents and offices by business owners pretty difficult.
One task force after another had been set up by government as response to the challenges in the port city. All had failed until the present Presidential Task Team which has Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as the chairman. The task team has recorded some degree of success in its assignment but not without confrontation by vested interests who benefit from the mess the port city has become.
But Ogungbemi faulted the various moves so far made by the government to solve the Apapa problem, saying that in addition to creating enough space (holding bay) for the trucks, the Federal Government should also revisit the action it took during the ports concessioning programme.
He said that the trucks did not enjoy parking along the roadside or on the bridges because it is not to their advantage, but “they are doing that because the structure of the port operations has been tampered with”.
“When the port was built, a dedicated place was also built as a truck park, but for reasons best known to the government, they removed all those places and instead utilised them for other activities,” he said.
Corroborating Ogungbemi, Emmanuel Ameke, a port worker, said for as long as the government fails to introduce a dedicated rail system into port operations in the country, for so long will the event of Thursday afternoon continue to occur, frustrating government’s efforts and inflicting pain on businesses.
The event of Thursday left one truck driver dead. The dead truck driver was allegedly shot or stabbed by street urchins (Area Boys) who were said to have been hired by the task team to face protesting truck drivers. The truck drivers were reportedly demanding an end to extortion by the team.
The death of the driver infuriated one group of Area Boys, who set ablaze Lilypond Transit Truck Park, which serves as a holding bay for trucks coming into Apapa to pick goods from the ports.
BusinessDay reporter who stumbled on the scene of the incident gathered that chaos broke out after truck drivers got fed up with being charged illegal fees by the task team officials without being transferred promptly to the central port in Apapa.
Part of the presidential task team’s job is to coordinate the movement of the trucks into Lilypond Transit Truck Park, from where they are allowed to access the ports on a first-come, first-served basis.
A logistics company’s truck supervisor who confided in BusinessDay explained that rather than approving the transfer of the trucks who use the Lilypond Park, the task team gives access to other truck drivers who can pay N30,000 illegal fee or more.
“The task team gave a rule that all vehicles must park in the Lilypond Transit Park before they are approved to go to the main port. But at night, they pass the vehicles whose owners have paid well for direct access to Wharf, abandoning others in the park like prisoners,” the truck driver said.
“They spend about 10 to 15 days in the park without being passed. That was why the truck drivers protested today (Thursday), insisting that no vehicle will be passed on to Wharf unless they are also passed. In retaliation, the task team brought touts to face the drivers. One of the drivers was stabbed to death and his body is currently with the DPO. This was what angered local Area Boys, who then started setting things ablaze in the park,” he said.
But when contacted, Kayode Opeifa, executive vice chairman of the task team, said the clash did not have anything to do with the task team’s activities in Apapa.
Opeifa said the clash was between ‘Area Boys’ and Lagos State taskforce on environmental sanitation. The taskforce, he said, was on a mission to clear all the areas under the Ijora Bridge and beyond.
“The Area Boys chased the taskforce and they ran into Lilypond Transit Park which the area boys took over, and subsequently set it on fire,” Opeifa told BusinessDay.
In the heat of the ensuing crisis, passers-by and motorists were robbed and some wounded. Some drivers had to abandon their vehicles in the middle of the road and ran to safety. The marauding street urchins attacked the deserted vehicles.
The police shot sporadically into the air, which caused more panic in the area, just after midday.
Zubairu Muazu, Lagos State commissioner of police, was said to be on his way to Lilypond as at the time of this reporting.
CHUKA UROKO & TEMITAYO AYETOTO
