Senate summons NPA boss over Apapa Port gridlock

In from Olumide Olaoluwa . . . .
The Senate on Tuesday mandated its committee on Marine Transport to invite the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Shippers Council and the Federal Ministries of Works and Transport to fashion out a way out of unlocking the gridlock in Apapa Port.
This followed a motion by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) and 106 others over the situation.
Senator Tinubu, in her lead debate, noted that 75 per cent of Nigeria’s trade is ship-borne and shipped through the Apapa Port where cargo and petroleum products bearing trucks regularly cause gridlock on Apapa-Mile 2 and Apapa-Oshodi corridors.
The lawmaker added that the trucks also pack on bridges and flyovers for days and weeks.
She expressed concerns that the perennial logjam on all access roads in the Apapa maritime corridor has resulted in telling consequences on the country’s economy.
The Lagos Central Senator regretted the obvious non-compliance of the world class and notable local marine operators with the 25- year Lagos Port concession terms to modernize port facilities, provide free flowing shipping activities was responsible for the sustained incidence of traffic lockdown of the Apapa shipping corridor.
She observed that the Apapa Port terminals are critical integral part of “our national inter-modal transportation chain that bear directly on Nigeria’s maritime/economic activities.”

Read also: Sitting ducks: Hoodlums feast on stranded motorists on Oshodi-Apapa

The lawmaker prayed the Senate to direct its Committee on Marine Transport when constituted, to invite the management/leadership of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), THE Nigerian Shipping Council, the Federal Ministries of Works and Transport, the Western Naval Command, the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), THE Nigeria Police and others to dialogue on the way out.
She also prayed the Senate to urge the federal government to immediately consider long-term plans for technical re-design and expansion of the Apapa-Ijora-Iganmu-Orile-Mile2 access trunk, as well as the Apapa-Tin Can-Mile 2-Oshodi corridor.
The two prayers were adopted.
Additional prayer that the NPA should immediately reactivate rail lines in and around the Apapa Port to ensure easy evacuation of containers was adopted.
Senate President Bukola Saraki thanked Tinubu for the motion describing it as one of the most important on the floor of the Senate.
Saraki said that there was no doubt that the gridlock is affecting the economic life of the country, and that a second look should be taken on the position of many tank farms in the area.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now