Sanwo-Olu: Lagos to take over Apapa gridlock control

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, says the state government has started the process of taking over the control Apapa gridlock from the federal task force.

Sanwo-Olu spoke on Monday when he visited Apapa area to assess the situation on ground in preparation for the eventual take over.

The governor said the state government will set up a seamless operation involving a team of dedicated officers from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and policemen from Area B to take over the traffic control.

He said the state owes residents the responsibility of making lives easier.

He added that a situation where truck drivers needed to wait for about 10 hours for handing over of operation from one NPA team to another was not acceptable.

“This is about the fourth time which my government has been trying to address Apapa gridlock and bring sanity back to the area. On each occasion we had come here, we knew that there were road constructions,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“This time around, there has been a lot of improvement and we have seen that a lot of the roads within Apapa have been completed. But, there has been no respite for commuters in terms of free traffic flow.

“Our plan is to bring about a cohesive system where all stakeholders would understand their roles and resolve challenges being encountered. Since last year, the presidential taskforce has been working on this issue.

“Now, there is a process that is starting in which the state government is taking over the task force.

“We will have a team of policemen and LASTMA dedicated to Apapa ports for enforcement of task force’s mandates.

“We are trying to bring about comprehensive metrics where all the stakeholders in Apapa understand and appreciate the various role that everybody needs to play. And let everybody identify and solve it.

“There have been accusations around cabal collecting money from operators and accusations around being hijacked by some people and there have also been counter-accusations.

“And we have all heard all the complaints from the various stakeholders, the unions, freight forwarders, drivers, everyone has said their own side of the story and you can see that it is multifaceted.

“Lagos state government is not the owner of the ports whose operations are causing pain to residents, but we owe a duty to our citizens whose lives and businesses have been badly impacted because of the gridlocks created in this part of the state.

“I believe this trip would give us another opportunity where all of us, as stakeholders, will be able to identify impediments and resolve the issues once and for all.”

The governor said the visit to the ports would be followed up with stakeholders’ engagement with NPA, shipping companies’ owners and freight forwarders.

Sanwo-Olu said the sharp practices and inadequacies observed in the handling of the container operations at the ports would be escalated to the minister of transport, adding that the misconducts of the policemen stationed closed to the ports would be reported to the inspector-general of police (IGP).

He said it was time the arm of the law caught up with those who had created the situation that led to the chaotic movements of container-laden trucks in and out of the ports.

Sanwo-Olu also said part of the issues to be resolved with the federal government over Apapa congestion is the uniformity in the operational licence being issued to barge owners.

This, he said, is to stop the creation of illegal terminals for barge operators and make adequate plan for licencees operating in traffic-prone areas.

He said: “We have arrested people we felt were operating illegal barge terminals before, but we were surprised some of these people had licences issued by the federal government.

“This is part of the issues we want to resolve. We are working collaboratively with the federal government on this. If someone gets an approval for barge operation, let Lagos government be aware, so that roads are probably planned to those terminals.”

TheCable had earlier reported that the federal government will constitute a new task force to decongest the Apapa gridlock.