Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports.
The Apapa-TinCan port corridor, according to truck owners and drivers affiliated with the Association of Maritime Truck Owners, has become the most notorious harbour for extortion.
Mr. Mohammed Sanni, Secretary of AMATO, stated at a stakeholders’ meeting hosted by the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) in collaboration with the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) that the multiple illegal checkpoints on the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports roads in Lagos have become a channel of organized impunity, official lawlessness, and excesses that defy both state and federal government authority.
“There are over 30 illegal checkpoints within the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Port corridors where truckers are forced to pay between N50,000 and N60,000 per trip to access the port,” Sanni said.
“The numerous illegal checkpoints along the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports roads in Lagos have become a conduit for organized impunity, official lawlessness, and government-defying excesses.”
“The presence of multiple checkpoints in the ports corridor is one of the major cancers eating away at truckers’ profits and undermining growth and progress in the maritime industry.”
It is the root cause of trucks looking rickety as a result of the damaging activities of traffic enforcement, security agencies, transport union thugs, and local government thugs.
“Extortion and corruption have been committed by both state and non-state actors using the Apapa and Tincan port corridors.”
“As a result of multiple checkpoints, we no longer have security along port roads because security men’s priority is to extort money from truckers.”
“Containers are being burgled and hijacked on the same roads where security operatives are present.” Hoodlums are extorting and robbing truck drivers on the same roads. “All of the federal government’s bridge light cables, which were installed to illuminate the bridges at night for security, have been stolen by scavengers on security-manned bridges.”
