The National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has given kudos to the Lagos State Government under the leadership of Governor Akinwumi Ambode for the business friendly environment he has created in the state which in turn enhanced their operations.
The Lagos State Vice Chairman, Dry Port Section of the association, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed who made this known in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos yesterday said that the Governor had done marvelously well especially in the areas of road construction and rehabilitation, street lighting and security.
Mohammed recalled that the governor had equipped the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) with heavy duty towing vans and cranes to assist distress truckers on the road free of charge as well as mandated the officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) to desist from impounding trucks and placing arbitrary charges from the operators.
He said,” As a matter of fact, there are areas government, particularly the Lagos State government, has done marvelously well in terms of some other areas even the road network. You see constructions and reconstructions of some other major roads within the state. Above all, the street lighting, every place is shining for security and if you travel for about 50 to 100 kilometers, you still see some security personnel there. So, in that aspect, they are trying.
“And again, the Lagos state government under the leadership of Governor Akinwumi Ambode is very friendly to transport operators; it has helped the transport sector very well. You are aware that he has asked LASTMA and VIOs to suspend impounding of trucks and placing of arbitrary fines on those trucks. I am bold to say that he is the only state governor that provides rescue team, equipped with heavy towing van and cranes through LASEMA. Any truck or containers that is distressed on the highway, whenever they come for rescue operation, they do it free of charge for the transport operators.
“If the governments will come with such ideas on seeing how to assist the transport operators, we will not say that he is not doing well. He is doing marvelous things. Assuming he continued with what was obtainable in the past, many of our members will be out of business”.
On the part of the federal government, the NARTO Vice Chairman posited that it was working so hard to see that it created an enabling environment even as he recalled that on the 17th of November, 2017, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo gave a directive that all the shipping companies should start receiving their empty containers at their various holding bays but regretted that up till this moment, nobody had enforced the directive.
“Where are the port regulatory bodies that are to implement that? Nothing has been done in that regard. So, you can see that there some interested group that are manipulating, which I believe are the ones benefitting from the decays in the industry. But I know maybe, before the end of their tenure, they will get it right because this is a government that I have seen that is taking the stakeholders along in their activities.
“We will support the government to get it right, until the shipping companies do the needful. They should not be hiding under bad road. Whatever reasonable information we should give the federal government, we will give them to achieve that mandate”, he added.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
