… Praises NPA, LASG over decongestion of Mile 2 – Tincan Island road
…Frowns at activities of touts on port corridors
Following the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA in Nigeria and subsequent launch of Nigeria’s inaugural shipment under the Guided Trade Initiative, GTI, the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO has recounted its role in the eventual take off of the largest free trade area in the world in Nigeria.
Speaking on the role played by the association in the take off of the Africa-wide trade, the Chairman, Metropolitan Unit, NARTO, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed recalled that the National President of the association, Alhaji Dr. Yusuf Lawal Othman nay the national secretariat of the association was part and parcel of the planning of AfCFTA in Nigeria.
Mohammed maintained that there were so many ministerial committees set up by the federal government in which the National President of NARTO was a member adding that the National Action Committee on AfCFTA was one of them.
Underscoring the importance of the association to the effective participation of the country in the AfCFTA regime, the Metropolitan Unit Chairman insisted that even when goods were exported through the air or the sea, getting them to the final destination would always be done by the use of trucks.
Reeling out the place of the organization on the continent, he said that the Executive Secretary of NARTO, Mr. Aloga Ogbogo is the President of the West African Transport Union, WATU while one of the former Presidents of the association is also the Vice President, Transport and Logistics of the African Union, AU. These developments, he argued, had earlier positioned and prepared NARTO ahead of the AfCFTA regime.
On the clearance of the Mile 2 to Tincan Island Port access road, Mohammed appreciated the efforts of the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko for detailing the Port Managers of Apapa and Tincan Island Ports to work in collaboration with the Lagos State Government and other stakeholders to rid the port access road of the perennial gridlock.
“I think that collaboration and the political will helped a lot to decongest the road. I assure you that everybody is happy, the commuters are moving freely even though there are still some problems, things have changed a lot. I can testify to that.
“There were people who benefited from the chaos and they tried to thwart the efforts of the government but we will not allow it. On our own, we have been trying to see how our members will understand and we are doing that in order to see that we have a seamless access in and out of the port which is happening now.
“It has saved manpower, time as well as diesel consumption. Going by what we were going through before, it has saved us N100,000 per truck multiplied by the number of trucks doing business at the Lagos ports. When you stay on the queue along the road, the area boys are always on your neck on a daily basis not counting the state actors but now when you come, you pass freely”, he said.
Speaking on the menace of the touts harassing truckers along the highway, he said, “We are worried about the menace and we are appealing to the Lagos State government to see the hazards that those people are causing. Just yesterday, they caused an accident that occurred at Agbara area. You know, driving needs concentration and when they come after a driver, he loses control and when he loses control, he runs into people and property and that is where you see accidents.
“We pleading with them (Lagos State Government), you know the expressway is not meant for just anybody to jump into and start collecting levies. If you want to collect any fee, go to your members, go to the garages. Collection of fees on the highway should be totally discouraged. Even in Lagos State law, you are allowed to collect any fee at the park, it doesn’t allow you to collect any fee outside the park but now you see some people constituting themselves into one form of taskforce or the other, touts causing havoc on the road” he stated.
Photo: Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed, Chairman, Metropolitan Unit, NARTO.
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