Navy disobeys presidential order to quit Port access roads – NARTO

Barely one week after President Muhammadu Buhari issued an order directing Nigerian Navy Officers and other security agencies to vacate Apapa port roads, truck owners have accused the Navy, Police and Civil Defense of still collecting money from truck drivers.

Speaking with our correspondent in Lagos yesterday, Alhaji Abdullahi Mohammad-Inuwa, the Lagos State Vice-President, National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) Dry Cargo Section said that there are mischievous elements around the port who do not want the President’s order to work.

Specifically, Inuwa who is also the Coordinator of the Council of Maritime Transport Union Association ( COMTUA) alleged that the Navy has continued to lay siege on trucks around Kirikiri area of Apapa.

He said that the Navy on Tin Can Island and Mile 2 expressway come out at night to extort truck drivers.

Speaking, he said “Yesterday, we took a walk with one of the commander of the federal task force commanding the Tin Can Island Port axis, his name is DSP Ndubuisi, we went there with a team of our taskforce for us to see his men on ground so that we can complement their efforts”

“What surprised me is that we saw some of the pin downs (canopy) where some of the security agents are still maintaining it with other police men that are not in the federal task force but they are claiming to be”

“They are not supposed to be there again to control traffic, they are just there now constituting nuisance, they should allow the Presidential Task force to do what they are sent to do”

“On that axis, we were able to identify about seven points which were occupied by those security agents, including Civil Defense Corps, even though the order has been given clearly that all military and paramilitary officers should vacate”

“The Navy usually show up at night and they collect money from truckers” he said

Inuwa said that so far, the Presidential Task Force has succeeded by 70% in clearing the Apapa gridlock.

“If you look at the Western Avenue, Eko Bridge, down to Alaska Costain, all that area is free, it is only the port area we have trucks”

“Those stakeholders who are saying that the Presidential order would not work, they are the beneficiaries of the traffic gridlock in Apapa, the road from Apapa port to Leventis has been fixed but it has had no changes on movement”