Workers in the maritime sector under the aegis of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) on Thursday issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to, among others, evacuate all petrol tankers and other heavy duty vehicles along the access roads to the sea ports, or all ports operations nationwide will be shut.
The union in a petition to the Federal Government through the minister of transport also demanded the relocation of all the tank farms along the access roads to the sea ports and rehabilitation of all the access roads to the sea ports within the next 14 days for industrial peace to reign at the ports.
In the petition dated July 9, 2014, signed by Aham Ubani, the secretary general, MWUN, the union lamented that incessant gridlock on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway had practically shut all economic and other activities on the Oshodi-Apapa axis besides inflicting untold hardships on residents and those whose businesses were located in the environs.
Part of the petition reads: “We observe with dismay that petrol tankers and trailers have permanently taken over the access roads to our sea ports, Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in particular. The resultant gridlock caused by the indiscriminate parking of the petrol tankers and trailers that daily want to load petrol from the tank farms along the access roads to the sea ports have made movement of people and goods in and out of our sea ports and work places within the Apapa industrial/commercial area impossible. The deep pot holes along the roads, which are better described as gullies have now turned death traps, and are contributory factors to the unprecedented gridlock that daily occur on the roads.”
