As the hardships encountered daily by commuters as a result of the rehabilitation of Apapa Wharf road increases by the day, the National Coordinator of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNIFIEC), Chief Sir Osita Patrick Chukwu has call on the federal government to consider closing down Apapa and Tincan ports, in Lagos to give room for repair works.
Chukwu who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos said activities at both ports should be moved to the eastern ports or Warri, Port-Harcourt and Onne.
He pointed out that alternatively, goods can be moved in barges through the waterways to Mile 2 and then to the bonded terminals from where people could clear their goods without making inroads to Apapa while the reconstruction lasted.
According to him,”We have been applying short term solutions to the problem and it is not yielding result. I am thinking if they can move everybody to Port-Harcourt and give the ports one year to fix the infrastructure. If cargo comes, move it with tankers to Mile 2 and go to the bonded terminals to offload them and then they may clear from there, then give chance to Apapa for repair works on the roads to take place.
“It is economically viable because congestion is killing businesses in Apapa because they neglected those ports in the eastern zone. If you neglect those ports with the billions of naira they used in building them, then why are we building ports in different locations? Are we not building ports in different locations to decentralize business?
“Not that cargo will not come here (Lagos) again, I am advocating for a temporal closure such that trucks will no longer be allowed to carry containers from Apapa and customs working in Apapa command will be moved to the FOU A which cam serve as Apapa command assessment area while the Festac Excise Office should serve as Tincan assessment area. Then we use barges to move containers to the bonded terminals and the roads will now be free for construction work to begin. Within one year, they will deliver this place alongside the rail lines”.
When reminded of the unavailability of fund to carry on the project as he suggested, the SNIFIEC boss noted that the money generated from the ports in three months would be enough to carry on with the project adding that all that the federal government needed to do was to devote 30% of the annual revenue collected from the ports to the reconstruction of roads and other critical infrastructure.
“When the place bounces back again, things will be working fine and by the time they learn how to move cargo to the dry ports and decentralize the cargo, it will be sweet”, he concluded.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
