The Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) has absolved its members of complicity in the gridlock currently being witnessed on all the access roads to the seaports in Lagos State.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos recently, the Chairman of AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi described as unfortunate, the situation where the truckers were being blamed for the gridlock that seemed to have defied every possible solution.
Chief Ogungbemi however blamed the problem on the era of the port reforms and port concessioning where he blamed the government as well as those who supervised the concessioning exercise for not carrying the truckers along in the arrangement.
He further stated that the situation was worsened by the scrapping off of all the places designated as truck terminals within the port environment.
According to him, “ the traffic situation within the port environment has become a recurrent problem because the truckers are at the receiving end of the problems and it is unfortunate that most of the problems are being laid at the doorstep of the truckers whereas truckers are not the cause of the problem”.
”I must tell you as an insider, the problem started right from the era of the port reforms, then coming to port concessioning. They were doing the reforms and the concessioning without carrying the truckers along and during he reformation exercise, they have removed places earmarked as truck terminals within the port environment and the truth of the matter is that the port cannot operate without the trucks”.
“Then if you cannot operate without the trucks, why not make provisions from where these trucks will be coming from, a place that will serve as a marshaling yard so that it will be easy for us to use a call up system to call a number of vehicles required at a particular terminal at a particular time.
He lamented that the poor state of the roads had gotten to its climax that trucks now fall on the roads on daily basis recounting the economic loss being suffered not only by the importers but also to the owners of the trucks in question.
The AMATO boss however disclosed that they were part of the calls that the authorities concerned should do something urgent to save the situation otherwise, they (truckers) would have no other option than to withdraw their services pending when the roads are in motorable condition.
On the threat by the Federal Road Committee on Surveillance and Action Against Road Abuse (FERCSARA) to begin towing the trucks that they found obstructing movement on the roads, Chief Ogungbemi opined that towing the trucks would not put an end to the situation adding that unless there was an alternative arrangement put in place to ensure there was a truck terminal, the exercise was bound to fail.
He chipped that instead of towing their trucks away, FERCSARA should tell them where they want to tow the trucks to so that they would on their own take the trucks there as members would be willing to drive the trucks themselves without necessarily having to tow them by the authorities.
On the appeal by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola that they should consider reverting their operation time to only at night to help curb the incidences of the gridlock, he has this to say,” I don’t think working only at night will be the solution. The problem has to do with the fact that the environment can no longer accommodate the volume of activities that are being given to it”.
“For example, the same roads that we have been using for the past forty years is still the roads we use today, the same facilities and the population is increasing, business concern is increasing, the volume of cargoes that are coming to the ports are increasing, then you want to tell me that the problem will be solved by only working at night”.
While calling on the government to embark on massive expansion of the necessary infrastructure to bring sanity and orderliness on the roads, he urged the federal government to consider acquiring the piece of land previously occupied by the Army Signals at Mile 2 as an extension of the ports since the Military had vacated the said piece of land.
“If the authority can acquire the place, it will serve as the extension of the port and I believe the place can accommodate all the trucks that operate in Apapa and Tincan ports”.
