Be vigilant, MWUN appeals to security agencies

…As hoodlums, truckers fight over toll collection at Tin-Can Port

By Abiodun OBA

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has called on all security agencies at the ports to be vigilant and be more proactive in the security of persons, trucks, and property in and around the ports.

The President-General of Maritime Workers Union, MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, made the call while reacting to the pandemonium which broke out on Wednesday at the Tin-Can Island Port as hoodlums attacked members of the Lagos State Cargo and Transport Committee (LASTCOC), killing one and injuring several others.

Adeyanju, explained that no good business thrives in the face of hostilities and crises as “we have experienced in recent times”.

Adeyanju, condemned in totality the act of barbarism meted out to truckers at the Tin-Can Island Port by hoodlums.

“The crisis, which lasted for hours on the day, had many of the maritime truckers attacked with machetes and other dangerous weapons, leaving them (the truckers) with various degrees of injuries.

“The thugs, in their large numbers, wielding all kinds of dangerous weapons, came into the Tin-Can Port to impose illegal sales of tickets at the gate beginning at the Tin-Can Port. It was this that ensued in a heated argument between the hoodlums and the truck drivers that gave rise to the ugly crisis.

“It took the efforts of the security agencies at the port to douse the tension after a serious exchange of gunshots by the hoodlums and the security agencies.

“We as a Union frown at this incessant criminality that’s always giving room to people and groups of people or associations who have no business at the port and within the axis, coming to breach the peace of doing legitimate businesses in the maritime sector.

“The Maritime Workers Union is appealing to all the security agencies at the ports to please be vigilant and be more proactive in the security of persons, trucks, and property in and around the ports, as no good business thrives in the face of hostilities and crises as we have experienced in recent times.”

Confirming the attack to newsmen, a member of the committee, Mr Seyi Adekanbi, said they were going to Tin-Can port to inform sensitive users of the port corridor of the need to clear the road and allow for a free flow of traffic for the commencement of rehabilitation works on the Ijora end of the port access roads.

Although the identity of the deceased could not be ascertained at the time of filing out this report, the corpse, according to Adekanbi, had been deposited at the mortuary.

Adekanbi said that not up to five minutes after their arrival, hoodlums and extortionists along that axis came with all kinds of weapons, including guns, knives, and cutlasses, to attack them because the criminal elements saw them as disturbing their illegal toll collection from the truck.