Apapa gridlock: Truckers, residents, stakeholders hail Osinbajo task team

Stakeholders comprising truckers, residents, business owners and commuters along Apapa axis in Lagos sate have continued to shower encomiums on the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo-led presidential task force on the evacuation of trucks and restoration of law and order on the axis.

They said that with the intervention of committed Nigerians and diligent members of the law- enforcement agencies, which constitute the task team, life is gradually returning to normal at the axis as businesses are springing up.

Prior to the intervention of the presidential task force, most residents had abandoned the axis while most businesses closed shop due to the perennial traffic gridlock which sometimes lasted for days.

The hitherto bubbling community and its environs were deserted due to indiscriminate parking of trucks on the roads leading to Apapa port.

Transportation along Ikorodu Road, Ijora, Apapa and Costain axis was hindered as a result of the heavy duty trucks stationed on the roads.

The task force was among other things expected to facilitate evacuation of trucks and tankers indiscriminately parked on the roads and bridges.

But, with the inauguration of the task force set up by President Muhammadu Buhari and headed by the Vice President Osinbajo, the narrative is changing.

Movement in and out of Apapa is now becoming easier than most axis in the state and travel time in the metropolis has reduced to normal.

Speaking on the restoration of law and order, the Chairman of Amalgamation of Container Trucks Owners, Chief Olalaye Thompson said that the Osinbajo-led task force has been able to eradicate the sufferings of commuters and business owners on the axis.

He said that the successful eradication of corruption in the system is responsible for the free flow of traffic in Apapa.

Also speaking, Mrs. Augustine Chukwuemeka, who runs a shopping mall in the area, said that since enforcement of the Osinbajo-led presidential task force, she has been recording remarkable improvement on her sales.

Also speaking on relative restoration of orderliness in the area, Gbade Amodu, a truck owner, said the manual call up being worked on by the task team would bring about an electronic call up that will finally put an end to the human interference which breeds corruption.

“For me, the old glory of Apapa is being restored. Many of our colleagues who left the business now want to come back. So far so good, we are impressed with the progress made so far.

The current task team met a system that was not transparent and they adopted better strategies after listening to our plights,” he said.