Apapa gridlock: Lagos traffic team uncovers e-Callup ticket forgery by truck drivers
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By Olasunkanmi Akoni and Godwin Oritse
Barely a week and half after Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, commenced the new electronic- Call Up System into the administration of port operations to ease gridlock in the axis, Lagos State Special Traffic Management Enforcement Team, said it has uncovered scandal involving counterfeiting of call up tickets, tagged; “Eto” by truck drivers and owners.
The development, it was learnt was said to be responsible for the initial teething problems experienced in the last one week when the initiative commenced.
Several efforts in the past to tackle the intractable perennial gridlock had failed forcing business owners to relocate to neighbouring countries as well as some residents abandoning their residences and other properties to safe abodes.
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Joseph Olaoluwa
The Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Transportation, Oluwatoyin Fayinka, has promised to take action against fuel tankers and containerised vehicles parking along Apapa port access roads.
This is following an investigation by The PUNCH which showed that trucks had returned to access roads contributing to a gridlock along Tin Can port as well as the Ijora end, days after the Nigerian Ports Authority inaugurated a new call-up system designed to address that purpose.
In an exclusive telephone interview with our correspondent, Fayinka who also serves as the chairman of the Lagos State Traffic Management Enforcement Team said he was still hopeful that truckers would not compromise the entire agreement reached before the introduction of the electronic call-up system.
One of the drivers, Femi Arowolo, said they paid N1,000 at Agbara park in the morning and another N1,000 at Iyana-Sashi, Okokomaiko and Iyana-Oba, in addition to the N1,000 they paid in the evening, to be allowed to operate.
“This is aside the sum of N100 paid to them on every trip made and additional N200 paid to the police at every bus stop,’’ he said.
The drivers vowed to resist the act with all their might, insisting that the colossal damage done to their vehicles was becoming too many and that they were no longer going to tolerate it.
Lagos impounds 200 trucks, as gridlock persists on Oshodi-Apapa expressway
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By Olasunkanmi Akoni
Lagos State Special Traffic Management Team said, yesterday, that it has impounded 200 trucks in the last 48 hours in the Apapa axis for flouting the directive of the newly introduced electronic Call-Up System and indiscriminate parking on the road.
This came on a day the gridlock continued on the ever-busy Oshodi-Apapa expressway, despite current effort to decongest the road.
Motorists and other road users were held up in traffic for several hours to get to their destinations.
Enforcement agents were nowhere to be found on the road as only men of the Nigerian Customs Service, truckers and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, were seen controlling traffic around Mile-2 and Otto Wharf area along Oshodi Apapa Expressway.