Stakeholders meeting called by the Lagos State government on Tuesday to discuss a solution to the traffic crisis in Apapa and its environs could not arrive at any concrete resolution.
BusinessDay gathered that most of the stakeholders at the meeting were engaged in buck passing and unable to chart the way forward on how to end the gridlock that had almost crippled the economy of Apapa, and forced a lot of businesses underground.
A source told BusinessDay that as a result of continuing argument and shifting of blame as to the cause of the lock jam, the meeting resolve to reconvene on Friday, when other stakeholders whose names were mentioned as responsible for the mess in Apapa, would be expected to come and explain their role.
“The stakeholders were more like passing bucks rather than owing up to their role and how to find a solution to the lock jam. So, we resolve to reconvene on Friday, September 29. We hope that others who did not turn up and those who turned up today (yesterday) would all be in attendance on Friday so that we decide how to go about mitigating the traffic gridlock and free Apapa,” the source said.
Those invited to the Tuesday’s meeting were Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO), Flour Mills Nigeria, Dangote Nigeria, Petroleum Tankers Drivers Association (PTD), Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
The meeting was at the instance of Olarenwaju Elegushi, Lagos State acting commissioner for transport, and was to deliberate on options to bring about a solution to the traffic gridlock, which continues to stifle businesses and put lives of residents of Apapa in danger.
The traffic situation is now being worsened by the ongoing reconstruction of a stretch of Ijora-Wharf road from the Area ‘B’ Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) towards the Apapa port. As a result, several hundreds of trucks and other articulated vehicles are now held up for days on Marine bridge and other entry points to Apapa.
