As the ongoing reconstruction of the Apapa Wharf Road gathers momentum, the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) has called for the reopening of a gate popularly known as Point 6 gate to serve as alternative route to and fro Apapa port during the period reconstruction work on Wharf road lasted.
The acting President of the association, Comrade Ben Uche Ndee who made this call in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos said the Point 6 was located within the Flour Mills Nigeria Plc.
According to Ndee, the one year closure of the Wharf road to allow for its reconstruction would take its toll on the stakeholders except if the gate is opened and the road expanded to accommodate inbound and outbound vehicles to the port.
“In as much as we welcome the idea of Dangote together with Flour Mills coming into the reconstruction of the road leading to the Port, the one year period given for this reconstruction is going to take a lot of toll on the critical stakeholders both the transporters, the freight forwarders and even the Apapa community.
“I remember way back then when we used to handle bulk cargo, fish, there is a gate through Flour Mills, it is called Point 6 gate that leads to the Lever Brothers and where they enter ferry, even though the rail lines have been balkanized due to concessions and what have you, the port was concessioned and before you know it, everything including the rail lines were lost.
“That road (Point 6) even before the closure of the Wharf road for the major reconstruction should have been widened so that the tankers, all of them on that axis up to that Lever Brothers and Navy Dockyard should have been cleared and made temporal entrance and exit to the port, one lane for trucks entering the port, the other one for exiting and the security agencies at the port whose main function is to extort money should be told this time around if government is serious that we are in emergency situation.
“Everything should be done inside the terminal, the moment they are going, they should be allowed access from the gate without which I am seeing a major problem both the bulk cargo, the regular container and what have you. If you know the volume of cargoes in Apapa port”, he said.
He maintained that if not was done in this regard, he foresaw a major problem that may even force vessels not to come to Apapa port because if the vessels don’t have a means of discharging, they would not come to Nigeria.
“They should look for a way to accommodate all the trucks including the tankers in a holding bay, they can be calling them in batches and direct them with serious military escort to the port, if they load, you escort them out”, he posited.
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