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Despite Govt action, traffic persists on port access roads
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GRIDLOCK The traffic gridlock at the Mile 2 end of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos ,yesterday. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.
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INSPITE of the renewed efforts by the government to the solution to Apapa traffic, there seems to be no end in sight to the traffic situation along the road as over 5,000 containers belonging to various manufacturing factories are currently trapped at the Tin-Can Island port.
The Managing Director of an international beverage company told journalists that his company has run out of the substrate used in manufacturing one of its soft drinks
Nigeria: Manufacturers Groan As 500,000 Containers Are Trapped At Lagos Port
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By Eromosele Abiodun
Despite the marching orders given by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, when he visited Apapa last week that the port access roads be cleared immediately, the situation has worsened.
THISDAY findings revealed that no fewer than 500,000 containers laden with raw materials belonging to manufacturing companies and traders are currently trapped at the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos.
A top management staff of an international beverage company, who craved anonymity, said yesterday that his company had run out of substrate used in manufacturing one of its soft drinks.
“We exhausted our stock and the container loads we imported arrived more than six weeks ago, but have not been able to leave the port,” he told some select journalists.
• Freight Forwarders blame stoppage of container stripping, barge operations
• 44 ships expected in Lagos in December
No fewer than 43 vessels laden with various goods are currently stuck in Lagos waters as congestion stalls operations at Nigeria’s busiest ports, the TinCan Island Port and Apapa Port in Lagos.
The nation’s import and export dealing is, also, in shambles, as prevailing congestion at ports caused a spike in shipping costs for Nigeran-bound goods by about 600 per cent.
The situation has thrown port operators at TinCan and Apapa ports into a state of confusion as containers are stranded at the terminals, while vessels are delayed unnecessarily on the waters due to limited stacking space.
The Frontlines By Joseph Ushigiale
Who are the sole beneficiaries of the current revenue drive being enforced by the Presidential Task Force on Ports Decongestion and Easing Apapa Gridlock?
The question has become pertinent because whoever is vested with the responsibility of supervising the task force, if he is not the sole beneficiary, ought to know by now that the task force has since outlived its usefulness and it is now operating beyond its brief extorting various sums ranging from N50,000 to N200,000 to grant access to port users. To maximum its profiteering, it has also resorted to illegally mounting all manner of obstacles and roadblocks which constitute the revenue collection points all over Apapa to make life utterly unbearable for port users and residents of Apapa.
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