Harboursandport.Com: Lagos -
The National Union of Road Transport
Workers, NURTW, has said that between 15,000 to 20, 000 trucks come into Lagos
daily, warning that the traffic gridlock in the state cannot be solved without the
establishment of Truck Transit Parks, TTP.
Speaking at a sensitisation workshop on the proposed
establishment of Truck Transit Parks, TTPs, across the country, organized by
the Nigerian Ship-owners Council, NSC, and the Federal Road Safety Commission,
FRSC, the Senior Adviser to the President of the Union, Adamu Danzaki, said the government should not focus on revenue but work at finding a lasting solution to the
traffic gridlock in the country.
According to Danzaki, “"The government should not focus on
revenue collection and extortion but focus on the future.
"The only way forward is to go
back to the truck park in Ogun state. You cannot remove Apapa port or Tin-can
ports from where they are presently. You cannot remove the tank farms from
where they are also.
"We keep repeating and recycling
what we have said, if you beat the driver or kill him, you cannot remove the
tension in Apapa because of the gridlock.
"Day-in-day-out the trucks are
coming into the area. We made our own headcount and we discovered that there
are over 15,000 trucks coming into Lagos daily for their business.
"Lagos is the centre for business;
they do not have land and therefore cannot expand. The only way out is to
collaborate with the neighbouring states, that is the only solution.
"Even if you place one truck on
top of another, there still would not be space for all the trucks coming into
Lagos.
"The only way out is to move all
the trucks from Lagos to Ogere and apply the call-up system.
"I am happy because some of these
truck owners have their own Parks but the only problem is the extortion. They
introduce what is called priority list, that priority list is just money they
are collecting; they are collecting between N20,000 to N30,000 from each truck.
"A driver knows that he is going
to stay there for a week, he will simply give the N30,000 and leave.
"It is you the grammarians that are
the problem, you do not tell the people in government the truth. Go and tell
Opeifa that I said it is not going to work, the efforts of the task force team
to decongest Apapa, if he does not extend the operations to Ogun state. Tell
him l said so," he noted.
He said that the presidential task force set up
to clear the gridlock in Apapa cannot achieve the task, adding that they have
failed.
This is even as he warned that unless
urgent steps are taken, some bridges in Lagos would soon collapse following the
constant parking of trucks and trailers on them.
Danzaki explained that the first
reason is corruption in the name of priority list which resulted in the
collapse of the call-up system and the absence of a TTP.
He said while truck drivers wait for
their turn to be called up, those on priority list get unhindered access to the
port after parting with some money.
He warned that government must pay
less attention to revenue it gets from the present situation and the extortion
and focus on the future.
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