Angry stakeholders, including the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, yesterday threw their weight behind the day-day warning strike declared by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, which is billed to start Wednesday to protest take over of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway by heavy duty trucks.
The gridlock has negatively impacted Apapa and its environ, which has made life not only unberable for residents of the area but also crippled businesses locacated in the axis. This compelled MWUN to convoke a meeting weekend to sensitize stakholders in the maritime sector on the need for the strike.
President General of MWUN, Prince Adeyanju Adewale, who dropped hint of the strike yesterday, said the union would decide its next line of action, if after the three days, government failed to fix the roads leading to the two ports and the area and address the accompanying traffic bottleneck. He added that the strike ought to have taken place before now but noted that it was suspended because of appeals by the government.
However, the federal government appealed to the union last night not to embark on the strike, saying work on the expressway was delayed by COVID-19 pandemic and #EndSARS protests which took place nationwide recently.
He said: “We have decided to put the warning strike on hold till Wednesday December 9, to sensitise other stakeholders in the ports why we have to embark on the warning strike.
“Since the information became public, many of them have been calling and begging for time. They insisted that they are not against our action because the seemingly intractable gridlock is also affecting them and that they are indeed in total support of our planned action.
“But they said it is too sudden and pleaded that we give them time to prepare. So, we have decided to give them two days to prepare. Consequently, the warning strike will now start on Wednesday, December 9, instead of tomorrow (today) as earlier resolved.”
Leaders of the union, while giving reasons the members would withdraw their services nationwide and embark on three-day industrial action, said they were disenchanted by the deplorable state of the access roads to the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports which had claimed several lives and caused incalculable man-hour losses, among other dangers as a result of unending gridlock.
The three-day warning strike is one of the resolutions of the union’s National Executive Council, NEC, meeting held in Lagos.
‘Fix ports access roads now’
A communique issued at the end of the meeting by the President-General and Secretary-General of the Union, Prince Adeyanju Adewale and Felix Akingboye, respectively, among others, reads: “The National Executive Council, NEC, in-Session wishes to draw the attention of the Federal Government once again to the deplorable state of the access roads to the Lagos seaports, and the dangers this pose to lives and properties.
“To avoid the continuous and unnecessary deaths as well as loss of man hours on the failed roads, the NEC-in-session calls on the Federal Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, to urgently fix the access roads and make them motorable.
“The NEC in-session unanimously approves the Central Working Committee, CWC, recommendation that the union proceeds on a three-day warning strike to bring to the public space our disappointment over the total neglect of the access roads to Lagos ports by successive government and the urgent need for government to repair the roads.”
Speaking more on the the planned three day warning strike, Adewale said,
“the three-day warning strike will be total. We cannot continue like this. From Second Rainbow to the ports in the last three weeks, it takes not less than five to seven hours to access the ports depending on when you get trapped.
“When you are leaving the ports, you even spend more hours from the ports to the same Second Rainbow. A lot of innocent lives have been lost, many have been maimed by hoodlums who rob and dispossess victims of their belongings.
“At the end of the three-day warning strike, the response of government will determine our next line of action. On daily basis, our members go through torture on their way to work and back home after work.
“Many of them do no get home until 12 am or more. The same thing happens to other road users on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. Many businesses have relocated out of Apapa and its environs to neigbhouring countries because of the failed access roads.
“The implications are huge to the Nigerian economy and employment creation. The government must address the condition of the roads and find lasting solution to the gridlock.”
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