Kazeem Ugbodaga

Lagos.  Governor,  Akinwunmi Ambode has declared zero tolerance against indiscriminate parking of articulated trucks on roads in Apapa area of the state and set up a taskforce to combat it.

The governor, who spoke shortly after inspecting major traffic points in the Apapa, Lekki, Ajah areas said he would immediately set up a task force to clamp down on erring truck drivers. 

Ambode emphasized that the traffic congestion in Apapa had been  aggravated by combination of factors humanly induced, adding that he would summon the stake holders to find lasting solution to the problem.  

“What we have done in the last three hours is trying to find out what are the issues that pertain to Apapa. We have all seen that the gridlock in Apapa is multi-faceted. We have examined things that relate to activities of trailer drivers and tanker drivers. It is totally unacceptable that we would be having tankers and trailers on our bridges.

“It is also not acceptable that they would decide to block all lanes that lead to Apapa. We have also seen that we must do something immediately to alleviate the challenges that the residents and business men are ‎facing. But again, you will also realise that the roads that lead to Apapa Wharf and Tincan Island actually belong to the Federal Government.

“We have come to this Bridge(Tin Can), it has been under construction in the last six years, we have also seen a trailer park that can actually contain about 500 trailers at a time that has been abandoned by the Federal Government. 

“What we want to do now is firstly to appeal to the Federal Government and most especially Mr. President that the contractor construction this particular bridge should come back to site and once we are able to open the trailer park, we would be able to allow other trailer and tankers to use the park,” he said.

Ambode stated that the greater part of the challenge is posed by the tank farm owners, saying  that there are about  57 tank farms around Apapa axis.

According to him, “that’s a major security challenge for the state government. We have to start to look at the security issues relating to these tank farms. All trailers across the country come to these tank farms and the tank farm owners, we are going to direct them in the next few days, they would be summoned to a meeting and they have to tell us what is their remedy to this menace that we are having in Apapa.”

“But right now on our part, the immediate palliative is that we would set up a task force that would involve most of our security agencies, including the police and we would  do a 24/7 monitor of the traffic. We would pay more attention to enforcement.

” From this evening, you will see that there would be more attention on enforcement and we would also fund that enforcement. We are going to give incentives to our law enforcement officers to ensure that the Traffic Law is obeyed,” he said. 

The governor appealed to the Federal Government‎ to ensure that the contractor that was awarded the Apapa road network return to site immediately. 

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti said the concern of the Police “is the nexus between  infrastructural development and the rate of crime being recorded in the area.

” ‎What we have observed in the last one year, due to the road network, the resultant effect is that most of these trailers always collapse and when this happens, you see a lof of hoodlums coming around to steal most of the items that is meant to be shipped to different parts of the country. 

“So we are of the view that by the time we have very good infrastructural development in Apapa area, then free flow of traffic, less criminality for hoodlums to take advantage of, then it’s going to be good partnership between the police and the state government and enable us to reduce all forms of criminality around this axis. It would boost the economy of Lagos State.”