Apapa gridlock worsens, PSTT in limbo as new ES learns the rope
Maureen Aguta
The Apapa gridlock which has been in some check for about a year now has fully returned, even worse than as bad as it used to be. Both sides (inward and outward) of the bridge were completed blocked by hundreds of trucks trying to access the port on Tuesday, leaving trucks and commuters trying to leave Apapa, trapped in the chaos created by the incoming trucks under the watchful eyes of security agencies.
Our correspondent was held up on Ijora Bridge Tuesday evening from 7: 30 pm to 10: 30 pm as a less than five minutes journey to Costaine ended up taking three hours.
There was confusion on the Bridge where several LASTMA officials, Police and Soldiers were busy doing nothing but a truck driver alleged that they are paying as much as N150,000 to those extortion points (checkpoints) before they were allowed be on the bridge eventhough they may not have been called by ETO.
With normal high activities during the yuletide, Advocacy Times can report that it will hell for commuters getting in or out of Apapa at this period as there is no indication that the situation will get better as the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) which has in recent times made a success of relatively keeping the notorious Apapa traffic gridlock in check is yet to get the attention of the new Executive Secretary/CEO of Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Munirudeen Oyebamiji, Advocacy Times learnt.
Sources close to the Shippers Council told our correspondent that since the new ES assumed duty he has not sought briefing on the operations of the PSTT and as result the funding and the attention which the intervention teams enjoyed under the watch of the immediate past ES/CEO, is no longer there.
The source further disclosed that the Task Team may have started withdrawing their men from the strategic positions they were manning in the ports and on the port corridor.
A development that has is causing the loss of the little gains already made in restoring decorum in Ship Boarding and Rummaging, Examination Bays at the terminals and the port corridors.