Steve Agbota
A group, Concerned Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (CFFN) has said it lost three of its members to Apapa gridlock within one week, just as it has threatened to down tools if the concerned authority fails to find a lasting solution to the punishing traffic menace in the area.
Speaking in Lagos, the Chairman of the group, Andy Omenogo disclosed that a member of the group died last week Friday and they also lost another member on Saturday.
According to him, only three days ago, another member of the group slumped and died while in the traffic.
He lamented: “On Friday, we lost a friend at Tin-Can Island Port; then on Saturday we lost another friend and colleague and only last Monday another member collapsed and died while in the traffic.”
The group also blamed the death to the perennial traffic that has not only led to the loss of life of its members but billions of naira.
While reacting to the development, the vice-president of the association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Kayode Farinto, said that 40 per cent of members of the group now suffer from high blood pressure, saying that the country will continue to lose to the traffic situation if urgent steps were not taken to address the crisis.
Recall that shipping operators in the Nigerian maritime sector have gone spiritual following the return of gridlocks to the main access road – Ijora/Wharf road.
This is even as the operators stated that the Presidential Task Force on Apapa gridlock has failed in its effort to remedy the situation.
While addressing maritime journalists last week, President of the Nigerian Ship Owners Association (NISA), Mallam Aminu Umar, stated that with all the revenue generated in Apapa, coupled with the massive employment the port offers the country, he was shocked that for the past two weeks, the seaport had been under lockdown as motorists now spend close to four hours connecting the port and Ijora.
According to the NISA president, “I cannot tell you how many companies have had to close down because of the Apapa gridlock. Many have gone under because accessibility to their business for customers became an issue.
“These days, movement in and out of Apapa is getting unpredictable. All what has been achieved in the last few months by the Presidential Committee on Apapa gridlock has vanished all of a sudden in the last two weeks.
“The task force was created to ensure there is no traffic gridlock in Apapa, but in the last two weeks, many of us have gone spiritual because the gridlock has come back worse than what it used to be.
“If for the past two weeks, the Apapa traffic chaos is back, then, the task force has failed. It is either the task force is not doing its job or something bigger than the task force has happened, and made them unable to do their job.”