It was another agonising day for motorists, com¬muters and port users on Apapa-Oshodi Express¬way, Lagos, on Tuesday, as the road remained largely blocked by unending queues of petroleum tankers and articulated trucks making their way to Apapa to lift petroleum products.
The situation yesterday was compounded by the early morning rain resulting in flooding in some sections of the expressway, as well as ongoing construction work by Julius Berger Plc.
The Second Rainbow Bus Stop/Mile 2 axis was flooded thereby further slowing down vehicular movement, leading to bumper to bump¬er gridlock. Traffic officials sighted on the road were obviously helpless in the face of the chaotic situation.
Apapa, notorious for intrac¬table traffic logjam, hosts the country’s two most patronised seaports as well as numerous tank farms which have no parking spaces for the tankers.
Nigeria, an oil producing and exporting country owns and runs four refineries, two in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and one each in Warri, Delta State and Kaduna. But the re¬fineries which have seen their good days presently operate below installed capacities, forcing the country to depend 80 percent on imported pe¬troleum products which are discharged only in Apapa.
In the last one week, it has been pain and anguish for businesses and motor¬ists entering Apapa, as they have been spending upward of five hours in gridlock, with very little done by concerned authorities. So far it has been buck passing between some of the agen¬cies of the government at both federal and state levels.
Yesterday, Kayode Opeifa, Lagos State commissioner for transportation, insisted that the Federal Government be held responsible for the chaotic situation, saying the recent directive to the petro¬leum marketers to ensure adequate supply round the country in order to lessen the pain of petrol scarcity has led to over 1,000 tankers heading to Lagos, thereby overwhelm¬ing the operatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to con¬trol traffic on the expressway.
He, however, maintained that the state government would continue to see how best it can manage the situ¬ation, with the deployment of more traffic management officials to the road, just as he expressed the hope that the situation should get better by the end of this week.
Sylvester Monye, the special adviser to Presi¬dent Goodluck Jonathan on project monitoring who doubles as chairman of the presidential task force on ports reforms, had earlier told BusinessDay that the Federal Government was aware of the situation in Apapa, and was working to address it.
Bayo Sulaiman, chairman of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and other Special Offences, had last Friday mobilised his men to help clear the Ijora-Apapa axis, which for a better part of last week, was also blocked by tanker and container bearing trucks entering Apapa.
