Hadiza Bala Usman: From Feb 27, trucks parked around Lagos ports will be impounded

Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), says trucks found around the ports corridor in Lagos from February 27 will be impounded.

At an interactive session with editors on Thursday, Usman said seven trailer parks have been set up in the environs of the Apapa and Tincan Island ports to accommodate trucks.

The NPA boss said an app, Eto, has been developed to remove human intervention in the process of calling up trucks.

“Sanitising the ports corridor is to have a designated parking space. If you don’t tell people where to park, they will park anywhere,” Usman said.

“So we have seven truck parks available in collaboration with the Lagos state government. It means that you can’t go into the port if you are not parked in the truck park.

“We are going to get a lot of push back, we have seen push back already. If you are found on the port corridor, your truck will be impounded. We are working with the federal road safety and LASTMA and the police command.”

Usman explained that all trucks going into the ports must be parked in the designated area and will be called electronically when the cargo is ready to be picked up.

Congestion has been a common feature at the ports in Lagos.

Efforts made by the federal government to decongest the area, including constituting a task force, has not yielded desired results.