ACTIVITIES in the Maritime sector closed for the week with stakeholders blaming the week-long traffic gridlock in Apapa and its environs on the concentration of tank farms in the area.
Reports state that the gridlock which arose from the blockade of the highways leading to the Apapa depots, literally brought vehicular movement to a standstill in Lagos.
The traffic situation was actually the point of focus for the week as the situation worsened by the day since the beginning of the week.
Mr. Bolaji Akinola, the Spokesman for the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), said that the tank farms must be decentralised as a major solution to the problem of traffic jams in Apapa.
He noted that the association had always suggested that petroleum products could be piped closer to different geo-political zones, moved through rail wagons and barges to avoid the extended pressure on the road.
Mr. Lucky Amiwero, President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), said the concentration of tank farms in Apapa was not in the interest of the maritime industry.
He said the nation should first consider critical actions like building of refineries, rather than remaining import-dependent for petroleum products.
Amiwero urged the ministries of transport, finance, works and petroleum resources to convene a critical meeting where the issues should be addressed in the interest of the nation’s economy.
He blamed the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for not working with the provisions of the NPA Law, Section 32A, which prescribes that the Authority should regulate traffic within particular radius of the port.
He stressed that if the NPA had acted accordingly, the ports would not have been subjected to what it was exposed to for the whole of the week.
In the same vein, Mr. Nasir Mohammed, the Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, said the traffic situation degenerated because petrol tankers came for loading simultaneously from across the country.
He said that the NPA has continued to work with the security and traffic agencies, to resolve the imbroglio to enable trucks to have free access to the ports.
The port manager, however, expressed fears that activities in the port may be greatly affected if the situation persisted.
Rev. Jonathan Nicole, President of the Shippers Association of Lagos State, bemoaned the traffic situation, saying that it was an unnecessary economic wastage.
He urged the tanker drivers to make use of the trailer park along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and to evacuate the products in batches from Apapa.
“So much money and man-hours have been lost to the ongoing logjam that could have been avoided by a structure of orderliness,’’ Nicole said.
Also reports that many workers had to go back home on Thursday after several wasted hours in traffic, while some others did not get to their offices until about about 2 p.m.
