In Apapa, there seems to be a jinxed situation that ensures the port city will never have respite from congestion and gridlock caused by inefficiency in port operations and large scale corruption which belies efforts by security agencies and other interest groups to control traffic in the area.
In the last couple of weeks, the Apapa bridges which had become parking lots for trucks heading to the Apapa ports has been largely free as only a few trucks packed in single lane can be found on the bridges. Yet, Apapa is not breathing well. Businesses and residents still have tales of woe to tell.
This is because Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, which is the second major route to the ports and to the port city proper, has become a nightmare as the access road to the Tin Can port has become not only difficult to pass through, but also too costly to use.
The situation at the Tin Can first and second gates are such that it’s affecting port operation significantly with over 40 ships stranded at sea, unable to berth. The congestion has also caused truckers to raise haulage cost by 50 percent within one week.
An unconfirmed report has it that haulage cost , specifically, from Tin Can to any other part of Lagos has risen by more than 1,000 per cent to about N1.2 million, up from about N100,000.
Besides the increase in haulage cost, extortion has assumed an embarrassing proportion. BusinessDay learnt that the presidential task team which had Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as chairman and Kayode Opeifa as executive vice chairman has been disbanded, but the team is quite visible at the troubled Tin Can gates.
This is despite calls by the House of Representatives and other maritime stakeholders on the federal government to disband the team, saying that it has outlived its usefulness and is allegedly participating in extortion and contributing to the congestion at the ports.
Emma Ameke, a clearing agent, told our reporter that there were more than four roadblocks between Tin Can Island Port First and Second Gates set up by the police, NPA security officials and members of the task team where each truck is expected to bribe them before gaining access into the port.
Ameke alleged that this illegal road blocks cost clearing agents about N300 million weekly, explaining that, to enter the port, truck drivers part with as high as N280,000 for security operatives on the road.
When the heat was on the Apapa Bridge, an agent, who spoke in an interview with BusinessDay, but did not want to be named, described the brazen extortion that was going on in and around the port city as “an organized racket.”
“There is what they call Fast-track. The situation now is such that if you want to take back your empty container to the ports and you want to queue on the road, it can take you two to three months. But if you want the Fast-track system, you will spend between N250,000 and N350,000 to get your way through for 20-foot and 40-foot containers respectively. If you are lucky, they can give you a discount of N50,000 in which case 20-foot will go for N200,000 and the 40-foot for N300,000,” the agent said.
Ameke noted that the extortions at Tin Can gates and the bridges were just two different sides of the same coin. “It is the same cartel that is now operating at the Tin Can port axis, making life difficult for port users and smiling to their banks in the process,” he lamented.
Though Opeifa insists the present situation at the Tin Can port is as a result of the inefficiency of of the port terminals which, he said, needed to be addressed, the Managing Director of Port & Cargo Handling Services, John Jenkins, was reported to have expressed frustration over the near-total collapse of cargo delivery along the Mile 2/Tin Can Island port access road.
Jenkins contended that “transfer of containers by road is almost not in existence because the road is blocked and you can’t get containers out. The problem is the road. If the problem of the road is solved, the problem inside the port will be solved.”
It must be pointed out, however, that the Apapa Oshodi Expressway, from Cele Bus Stop through Mile 2 Bridge is relatively free of the usual heavy truck build up, giving motorists welcoming experience. The occasional bottleneck on the expressway is said to be a direct by-product of the backlash of blocked Tin Can port access road.
