15th September, 2019
The Amalgamation of Container Trucks Owners has faulted the allegation of corruption leveled against the Presidential Taskforce on evacuation of trucks and tankers on Apapa axis of Lagos.
Chairman of Amalgamation of Container Trucks Owners, Chief Olalaye Thompson commended the intervention of the presidential task force headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to clear up the gridlock in Apapa and its environs, saying that the team has restored the lost glory of the axis.
He said prior to the intervention of the Osinbajo-led presidential taskforce, they paid as much as N150,000 or more to access the port, saying that corrupt practices which took place under the previous joint taskforce led by the Nigerian Navy were responsible for the persistent gridlock in the axis.
“The way the previous joint taskforce operated was alien to the whole system, when it is 9.0am to 10.00am in the morning, they stopped truck from crossing until the 8.00pm in the evening and during the period of the stoppage, and the gridlock would have built up. People were then forced to bribe their way to the port. Then it became the highest bidder show. The drivers were force to bid for the amount they can afford to pass. Somebody can offer N100,000 while another one can offer N120,000 or more,” he explained.
On the restoration of sanity in the area, Thompson said most Nigerians and all the commuters in the axis could testify to the fact that the new presidential task team had done perfectly well since the inception of its operation.
According to the haulage, the era of bribing security personnel and other touts who take as much as N150,000 or N100,000 to access the port has gone for good, saying only those who have genuine document now have access to the port.
He said: “I am saying this with all sense of responsibility, nobody can say that he is paying N20,000 to access the port. As the leader of the truck owners, if anyone is paying such there is no way I will not know. Our members must have come to tell that there is no different between the presidential task force team and other previous task force in the area. Under the previous joint task force led by the Nigerian Navy, a lot of blunder was perpetrated people pay as high as N150,000 and N200,000 before they could cross.”
A member of the Presidential Taskforce team, who refused to give out his name, said so many touts who disguised as law enforcement agents to swindle truckers had been arrested and detained.