Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, has said that as part of measure to address traffic along the port access roads, the government is set to eliminate cases of illegal checkpoints, unapproved parking of trucks and extortions of truck drivers along the road.
The minister disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters in Lagos with the theme: ‘Review of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Truck Traffic Management Along the Lagos Port Corridor’.
Representing the minister, Busayo Stephen Fakinlede, the minister’s Technical Aide told the stakeholders who were mostly from the trucking subsector that a committee had been set up to review all the grouses and suggested solutions adding that the issues would be resolved within one week.
“We can see that all the stakeholders are here to make sure we resolve all these issues and you can see the passionate intention of everyone to see that this problem is solved. o, we are going home with the singular thing that all of these things will be things of the past.
“We have already set up a committee and all the solutions proffered to the problems will be put together for the committee to review and in a week’s time, some of these issues would be resolved.
“The difference between this and the past ones is that the stakeholders here are parts of the problems, we have the truck owners, terminal owners and the other stakeholders here, it is affecting their businesses and they know the solutions. That is why everybody is here today.
“Talking about maritime, time is money. The stakeholders cannot afford to lose money so also the government does not want to lose money. The only way is for them to work together to find solutions and that is what is going to happen in the next couple of weeks because anytime we delay, it affects them. That is why this particular meeting is going to be different from the previous ones.
“The issues that have to do with infrastructure, those ones will take a little time but the solutions start from now and we already taking them one by one,” he said.
In his remarks, Lagos State Government represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Hon.
Sola Giwa, Special Adviser to the Lagos state Governor on Transport, reiterated the state had earlier resolved on moving parked trucks out of the roads.
He called on the management of NPA to review its Minimum Safety Standards (MSS) on trucks stating that the scheme is not serving its purpose.
According to him, “there are many rickety trucks still plying the port roads. It is important that the minister sit down with the IG of Police to rid the roads of miscreants and police officers extorting truckers along the corridor. There are too many road blocks. NPA security, LASMA are collecting money.
“The E-Call up system is working, don’t scrap it. Your solution is superb but you must not turn yourself into a revenue generating agency, he said.
