The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has been urged to clear Oshodi-Apapa port corridors and end the perennial traffic gridlock between Mile 2 and Liverpool

The gridlock, truck drivers said, is brewing gradually, despite the deployment of the electronic call-up system (Eto) by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which is designed to regulate truck movement and prevent indiscriminate access to the port and Apapa area of the state.

The Eto, introduced by the NPA and managed by Truck Transit Parks (TTP), stakeholders said, has delivered significant improvements to traffic management around the Lagos Port Complex and the Tin-Can Island Port before the current ugly situation.

The system, according to a truck driver, Gbolahan Sanusi has assisted “in the reduction of the long-standing gridlock along the Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors by introducing a structured scheduling system that regulated truck movement in and out of the ports.

The system, Sanusi said, “brought order to previously chaotic access roads such as Mile-2 Apapa Port Road by ensuring that trucks moved only on approved times rather than flooding the port corridor indiscriminately, as we are witnessing now. The system also improved the use of designated truck parks for empty containers, resulting in the reduction of congestion within and around the ports.”

The management of the NPA, Sanusi said, needs to embark on serious campaign operation to dismantle all the illegal checkpoints along the port corridor to free the road and boost business around the area.

According to him: ” the progress by the Eto appears to have been eroded. The resurgence of the gridlock suggests a systemic failure in the effectiveness of the electronic call-up system. The inability of the system to control truck movement efficiently points to serious operational lapses that needs to be addressed by the Ministry and the NPA,” he said

Another stakeholder, Johnson Abraham alleged that the trailer drivers, security agents and their camp-boys are responsible for the current sorry situation along the road and called on the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the management of NPA to come up with a joint exercise to ensure that the perennial gridlock erra does not return to the Apapa and its environ.

Investigations conducted by The Nation revealed that motorists and commercial bus drivers are no longer enjoying unlimited access to the Tin Can and Apapa ateas from Oshodi because of the extortion and indiscriminate parking of container ladened trucks along the Expressway.

Findings revealed that it takes vehicles over an hour from Mile-2 to access the Tin-Can port because of the indiscriminate parking of trucks between Coconut Bus Stop and Liverpool.

NPA and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, one of the road users, Gbenga Agbalaya said, need to open the Tin-Can express road to boost businesses activities in the area.

“Opening Oshodi-Apapa express road would promote free flow of traffic, seamless movement, trade facilitation and ease of doing business.

“It is our hope and prayer that the road clearance operation would be embarked upon by the NPA to prevent re-grouping and return of extortion bandits taking advantage of gridlock to extort truckers and burgle containers in transit,” a clearing agent, Moshood Agbalaya said

He said the NPA should be worried that “months after rehabilitation and completion of the road project by the Federal Government, port users and motorist cannot access Apapa area directly except by driving against traffic because of the indiscriminate parking along the port corridor.

A clearing agent, Sunday Okikiola berated the activities of non-state actors and confirmed the readiness of the stakeholders to collaborate with the NPA in removing the indiscriminate parking of container ladened trailers on the port corridor