An unidentified truck driver has reportedly died at the second gate of the Tincan Island Port Complex while waiting on queue to return an empty container belonging to ZIM shipping company to the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT).
The deceased, Primetime Reporters gathered, died on the early hours on Tuesday inside the 40ft container where he slept with the assistant driver.
A member of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) Task Force, Mr. Lukman Adebayo Lawal, while speaking to journalists on the sad event, blamed the incident was stress.
He also said that the late driver was reportedly sick some days earlier but lacked money to take care of himself, adding that the officers of the Nigerian Navy on traffic control duty allegedly harassed and extorted the driver the previous day.
Lawal informed that the late driver’s assistant popularly known as motor boy broke the news of the driver’s death to the Task Force that morning.
In his words, “This morning the Assistant driver aka, Motorboy, came to tell us that one driver died in the container. When we got there we met the corpse there, we now asked the assistant driver how it happened, he said that they have been on the queue for a long time. He was carrying ZIM empty container going to Tincan second gate going to TICT.
“He said that the deceased has been sick since Monday and they don’t have money to take him to hospital. He also said that the Naval officers at Mile 2 had beaten the driver on Monday and collected all the money they had so there was no more money to rush the driver to hospital.
“So as they slept on Monday night against Tuesday morning, the assistant driver went to buy food on Tuesday morning for the driver to eat, on getting there he discovered that the driver is dead, he died inside 40ft container. He slept inside the container and he died there, it is over stress that killed the driver and there was no money to take him to hospital”.
He called on the government to come to their rescue by ensuring that a lasting solution was found on the perennial gridlock that has characterized the road.
Also speaking on the incident, the Lagos State Vice Chairman, Dry Cargo Section of NARTO, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa Mohammed regretted the sad development saying that the latest casualty brought the number of drivers lost to Apapa gridlock this year alone to five adding that the situation must not be allowed to continue.
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.
