Barely few days after the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), KLT chapter alleged that truckers were being extorted along the Mile 2 to Tincan Island Port corridor, a chieftain of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed has collaborated the allegation adding that corporate extortion is now order of the day along the corridor.
Alhaji Mohammed who disclosed this in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos recently observed that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) came with good intentions in establishing the system which he said they believed would eliminate all the extortions along the port access roads.
He stressed that the introduction of the Eto call up system was a good development which they had been looking forward to but along the line, other issues cropped up that up till now, they had been battling with it.
While admitting that since the introduction of Eto, it had brought sanity to some areas, he, however, noted that it seemed NPA was handicapped in some other areas.
According to him, “The NPA is trying to sustain the tempo in all the areas that has been cleared so as to maintain sanity in those corridors but the (Lagos State) enforcement team is politicizing the process. To me, from what I observed, with Eto, it is supposed to be free access from all angles; from Mile 2 to Tincan, we should have free access because that is the essence of bringing Eto but why are we still having trucks parking along the road on Mile 2 axis?
“To me, if that is the case, Eto is not working there because if Eto is working there, there’s no need for trucks to still be seen parking along the road. That is why I said the NPA is handicapped because it is not the (Lagos State) enforcement team.”
He stated that the enforcement team has been politicized somewhere along the line such that one now find touts along the corridor extorting money and beating drivers, breaking some trucks’ accessories with impunity and with the backing of some politicians who he said maybe involved in the leadership of the enforcement team.
Mohammed added that, “If Eto is working, there is no need for any traffic from Mile 2 down to Tincan, there’s no need for any check point from Mile 2 to Tincan. The only place that we may think there’s the need for a check point which is the turning point is Coconut bus stop because if you have your genuine call up, you should have free access to the port but if you don’t have a genuine call up, on getting to the Coconut bus stop, they will turn your truck back and then, from Coconut down to Mile 2, there should be no truck parking along the road if the enforcement team is doing the right thing. So, for me, I think there’s compromise somewhere.
“So, that is why I said in that area, Eto is lacking, the NPA is handicapped because it is not the enforcement team. If the enforcement team has been compromised, you must see trucks along the corridor. If the enforcement team is working, those trucks that are there, you will not see them. So, definitely, they must be at the right place that they are supposed to be.
“I want to assure you of one thing, any truck that you see parking along the road, there are some people coming to collect money from that truck. They are parking there because they have compromised the enforcement team.
“There is extortion on that road. Even, you don’t need to be a trucker for you to notice that there’s extortion going on from Mile 2 down to Tincan but they have backing. This is corporate extortion, this is so because there is no way the authority that is supposed to make sure that they follow law and order now authorizing some groups to collect money on federal road.
“Last time, I know there were some fracas which even claimed some lives but I was surprised that the people at the head, instead of questioning the fracas, pushing for investigation into the matter allowed those urchins to come back and continue with their activities. So, it has been politicized.”
Asked if he can identify those behind this extortion, he said, “When you see those people, you will see the name of their organization tagged on their reflective jackets along the axis. Those are the people, I can confirm that they are there collecting money.
While pointing out that they were not against any group collecting money from their members, he made it clear that such group or organization should go to their approved parks and collect money from their members instead of coming along the road to harass and intimidate drivers.
Asked if they have lodged any official complain to the authorities, he said, “Authority that is concerned, that is the route majority of them are taking to their offices and I believe they have seen it. If they know what they are doing, they could have questioned their activities. The incidences of extortion has continued because the authorities assigned to monitor their activities are involved directly or indirectly. The Head of the enforcement team, is he not aware of the extortions going on on the road?
“The person that we are supposed to complained to, several complains have been channeled to his office and up till now, nothing has been done instead you see them coming by the day. So, what is there is more of looking at see how to empower themselves for their political purposes.”
Photo: NARTO chieftain, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
