TEMITOPE ADEBAYO
There have been middlemen crisis as the Presidential Task Force Team set up by President Muhammadu Buhari on Apapa gridlock working towards achieving the objective of its establishment.
The team, which headed by the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the chairman and Comrade Kayode Opeifa to serve as the vice-chairman, to return normalcy to Apapa because of the incessant gridlock that is crippling the area.
The task force is also expected to enforce discipline, introduce a workable manual call up system pending the introduction of electronic call-up system by NPA, Develop and deploy a working traffic management system, coordinate and control trucks and tanker drivers who are designated to access the seaport to stay off the roads leading to the port.
The presidential task force team comprises of Nigeria Police, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the combined team has been working to ensure the objectives of the establishment of PTT achieved.
While identified some stakeholders behaviour as being responsible for the current unnecessary artificial traffic gridlock at the Tin Can Port, as against the reports that accused officials of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Security Department, Police and the Presidential Task Team on Apapa gridlock who were deployed to manage traffic in the area, of extortion.
The backlog of vessels at seaports, congestion caused by noticeable potholes in both sides of Lagos-Badagry expressway and the current state of rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads projects presently on-going can be seen as the cause for the congestion noticed recently around the Mile 2 area.
During a chat with the Executive Vice Chairman of the Presidential Task Force, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, he denied the allegations as baseless, with no iota of truth and a Corruption, Fight Back strategy.
He explained that there are challenges and said the hardship will soon be a thing of the past even as he backs recent moves by NPA to regulate barging operations and Stripping at the Ports.
He added that enforcement agencies have a new responsibility to go after the organizers of stripping at other locations such as Warehouse road in Apapa, Marine Bridge, among others now.
Opeifa reveals that Freight Agents and truck owners have persistently lamented over the worsening traffic situation along the port access roads which the Presidential Task Team who were deployed to manage Apapa gridlock has no control over.
On extortion by the taskforce, he denied knowledge of such an urge anybody with information should directly approach him or NPA with proof as most are false or by Middlemen and scammers operating as Movers and mostly affecting those who are always working to subvert due process.
He also commented on the activities of the members of the Community Security who has been supportive and assisting the government in checking the crime rate during traffic trigging along and around Mile 2. Noting that their efforts as long as is peaceful and productive is commendable.
He said; “While cargo stripping isn’t the norm in port business globally, and particularly hazardous as it clogs the port access roads, some stakeholders have turned this practice to the norm while the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has now risen to control it and must be supported as its creating problem along the port access roads.”
“Most importers have resorted to stripping at Tin Can to evade possible seizures by Customs and enable them to easily evacuate the goods and the high demand for stripping at the port environment has made the service more expensive than conveying the goods outside the ports.”
“Consequently, other cleared imports were unable to leave the port while exports couldn’t also access the port.”
Opeifa, therefore, urged terminal operators and others involved in sharp barge operations and causing additional hindrances on the port corridors should be sanctioned while genuine, terminals and manufactures who desired barging for their direct operations should be protected in the interest of inter and multimodal transport.
He commends that Freightreight agents and their truckers who have obtained TDOs should be free from storage charges and demurrages arising from the clogged port access.
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According to a top NPA source, this logistics quagmire was what led the Authority to suspend stripping within the Tin Can Island Port premises.
Agents, on the other hand, argued that the stripping fares ranging between N600,000 to N700,000 were sufficient to move the cargoes outside the port environment.
The amount for stripping in the Tin Can Island port area is exorbitant but it is simply a factor determined by market forces. The demand for stripping in this area is so high and there is no space for such activity.
Therefore, those with the facility hiked the prices but importers don’t care because it saves them from the possible dangers with the multiple Customs units on the highways,” an NPA official at Tin Can Island Port said.
Noting that stripping isn’t the ideal practice around the world, the NPA source said, “Stripping became a necessity at Tin Can because of the nature of the cargoes received at the port.
Terminals operating in the Tin Can Island Port environment have been systematically fueling the chaos in the area as they also ignored NPA’s proposal to only receive trucks that have Terminal Deliver Order (TDO), so that the trucks bringing empties can leave with consignments as some bad eggs in the division have given the group a bad name.
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