Apapa gridlock: NPA boss fingers security agencies, says insecurity hindering eastern ports
He also said ports in the East are not working because of some constraints, especially insecurity in the region.
“The first issue is the problem of extortion. There are multiple check points within what we call the Red Zone.
“Currently, there are over 5000 containers across the ports. Some of these containers are actually more than a year old and when you leave this containers there, you’re also occupying space for containers imported. For instance, APMT have over one thousand, we will get you the details.
“Nigeria Customs has not auctioned any containers to the best of our knowledge in recent times, so there’s even no space to take empty containers, some of them have been there for many years. That’s a big challenge, if that can be handled the terminals will be more free and there will be more space.
“And these checkpoints are manned by police officers. At times you find men in naval or military uniform extorting vehicles illegally and Lagos State government has been very cooperative in terms of enforcement of the SOP as it relates to the truck call up system.
he disclosed further that at a meeting recently with Road Safety Federal, LASMA and other officers in the police force, a decision was taken that they should identify checkpoints and the essence of the checkpoints so as not to interfere with traffic.
“The essence of the check point is to verify that these trucks are allowed to come in. But at times we discover that the trucks will just park along the TIN CAN Apapa corridor looking for business. That means they actually have no business being in that locations,”he said.
On the need to adopt automated terminal delivery whereby anyone without a ticket, cannot come in or have their trucks found impounded, Koko explained that the people to enforce the rules responsible for the extortion going on.
“The people that are supposed to impound are the ones extorting. At times in a day you can count up to 15 to 30 checkpoints and it’s really affecting the flow of traffic, now it has graduated to area boys being the 5th man or whatever they call it,” he lamented.
as regards eastern ports, Koko fingered insecurity in the region as reason for their nonfunctionality.
“All the ports are working. But the eastern ports have geographical limitations. They have the longest channels that exist in Nigeria because they are near the ocean. So, because of that location and the insecurity in that area, it makes it difficult for shipping companies to use those ports.
“We have also given concessions to shipping companies and we are hoping that it will encourage more activities on those ports. We are encouraging the use of flat vessels in those areas. But the NPA cannot determine for importer where to take his cargo. Studies have shown that between 60 to 70 percent of cargoes imported is used in the southern part of the country. So, you don’t expect an importer, who wants to use his raw materials in a factory in Lagos or Ibadan to take his cargoes to the eastern part of the country.
“The other issue is that of security. While the ports in the East operates 24 hours, they are operating 10 hours in the East.
“The Rivers port has reached its life span and it has its limitations. The engineering design for the port is very old. It is Mongo park kind of design and does not allow us to dredge deeper. The only solution is to reconstruct it or build a new one. The solution is what we are working on right now. What we have done recently is to sit with the terminal operators and see how we can modernise the existing ports. If we wants to go deeper, we have to reconstruct those ports.”
