STOAN Rejects Truck Movement Guidelines On Apapa Gridlock

Seaport terminal operators and the Presidential Task Force on Apapa Gridlock have rejected truck movement guidelines issued earlier amid the lockdown period.

According to the operators under the aegis of the Seaports Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), implementing guidelines will only stir chaos and congestion along the port road.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Seaport Terminal Operators of Nigeria Bolaji Akinola reacted to the guideline passed by the task team’s Vice Chairman, Kayode Opeifa saying, “It is clear that this task team has outlived its relevance, and its operations are not in tandem with the realities on the ground in Apapa. The federal government deliberately left the port open so as to keep the flow of essential supplies to Nigerians at these difficult times going, but the task team has come up with guidelines that suppress the timely evacuation of cargoes at the port.

“Is the task team aware that Apapa is a port city? Why then is Mr Opeifa creating guidelines that restrict the movement of trucks evacuating cargoes at the port? Is this not contrary to the position of the federal government that the logistics and supply chain should not be interrupted?” STOAN queried in the statement on Tuesday.

The association said it rejects the guidelines to ration the timing for cargo truck movement “cargo evacuation must be done round the clock”,

STOAN also said that part of the guidelines allowing port-bound trucks to access the Lagos Port Complex Apapa only via the Wharf Road, while those being used for other purposes have unrestricted use of all other access roads is “ill-advised”.

“These guidelines stand logic on its head. How do you ask the port trucks not to work at certain times and not to use certain roads? The roads are for port operations. We kindly urge President Muhammadu Buhari to call Mr Opeifa to order, as he has now totally deviated from his brief,” STOAN said.

The association added that it was the responsibility of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to control traffic management on the port access roads

Responding, Opeifa said, “We don’t control truck movement; the NPA does that. The guidelines are a reference to the guidelines on social distancing in line with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health’s directive.

“NPA has a robust security department that had done a good job of managing the traffic on the port access roads in the past and it is the consensus of stakeholders that they should return to that role,”

“The thing does not affect the truck call up by the NPA; the system is the same,”  STOAN said.