The Coalition of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA) has blamed the delays being witnessed in decongesting the Oshodi-Apapa expressway of traffic on the activities of the terminal operators and shipping companies who it said are working to sabotage the efforts of the Presidential Task Team on Decongestion of Apapa Gridlock.
The Head of Operations, COMTUA, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos observed that the obstacles posed by the terminal operators and shipping companies to the success of the Presidential Task Team confirmed their position that there were cabals who were behind gridlock being witnessed in Apapa.
Mohammed however noted that the Presidential task team has done a lot adding that they had succeeded in Apapa axis as well as recorded some level of success in Tincan axis despite all the challenges.
He said,”The road construction and so many leakages but you can see that the situation is not like before. Now people coming from Mile 2 and Oshodi can drive freely up to sunrise bus stop without hindrance because there is a dedicated route for them. You can see that even if there is a queue, they are maintaining one single queue from Ijesha up to sunrise bus stop. So, it is a great achievement.
“The challenge we have now is that of saboteurs personified by the shipping companies and terminal operators. The shipping companies which they asked to provide holding bays for empty containers are not forthcoming. The government has made effort to make provision for trailer park so as to streamline the activities of trucks but I can see that they are frustrating the efforts.
“As I am speaking with you, during the sallah holiday, we expected that the shipping companies will be working so as to reduce pressure on the road. Assuming they worked, all this backlogs will no longer be there but they intentionally refused to work because if they worked during the holiday, the task force would have achieved the same feat as they did in Apapa.
“As I speak with you, for more than a month, Ports & Cargo and Five Star logistics are not receiving their containers as well as TICT because as you know, shipping companies are in third party arrangement. Every morning, they will come to say that empty containers belonging to particular shipping lines are not being received and for all these holidays that they are not receiving empty containers, all the truck parks are filled up.
“So, I can boldly say that those were the reasons responsible for the presidential task team not achieving their aim on the Oshodi-Apapa axis, the shipping lines and the terminal operators. We know there is road construction but you can see that the road is not as it used to be some months and years ago. “
He explained that the situation they found themselves after the sallah holiday forced COMTUA to mobilize more of its task force to go and arrange the trucks at the truck parks so as to position them according to shipping lines so that when empty containers of any shipping line were being received at the port, it would facilitate easy access for them to leave the truck park.
“I believe before next week, we will be able to see what we put in place there”, he added.
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