Truckers combine forces to tackle extortion, traffic gridlock at ports 

The newly constituted Council of Maritime Transport Union and Association (COMTUA) has assured stakeholders in the shipping and logistics industries that it would work round the clock to resolve some of the challenges associated with gridlocks, molestation of drivers and extortion along the ports corridors in Lagos State.

COMTUA is a combined  group drawn from the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria  (MWUN), Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), National Union of Road Transport Workers NURTW  (haulage section) and Association of Containers Truck Owners  of Nigeria (ACTON).

Coordinator of COMTUA, Comrade Stephen Okafor in a chat with newsmen  in Lagos recently, explained that the issues of gridlock along the port access roads would be a thing of the past following the combination of the maritime union and truckers.

Okafor said the combination of truckers and union workers was made possible courtesy the agitation of the Nigerian Ports Authority ( NPA), in line with the Ease of Doing Business in the nation’s seaports.

Okafor stressed that some of the areas  COMTUA would address include trucks difficulty to access the ports, assistance to government agencies in the control of traffic and to form a pressure group that will represent the interest of the transport subsector on issues that have to do with the state of the roads.

He noted that the group would continue to engage government in ensuring that the state of the roads are fixed to ensure smooth and seamless port operations.

On his part, Coordinator 2 of COMTUA, Comrade Abudullahi Eroje noted that the combined team would work closely with the government and other stakeholders to ensure that access to the ports and Ease of doing Business in the nation’s seaports succeed.

Eroje said the process of addressing gridlock along the Tin Can Island port access road has started, courtesy the newly formed group, pointing out that “We as members of MWUN last year precisely stopped work for a day to protest the bad and dilapidated aspects of that road and the government promised to do something about the situation by awarding the contract .

“And just two weeks ago, we learnt that they have flagged off the reconstruction of Tin Can Island road but we are yet to see the impact of the road.

Apparently optimistic on the newly formed group, Eroje affirmed that COMTUA would make a statement about the state of the failed access road linking the Tin Can Island port and Molestation of drivers.

Similarly, Head of Operations, COMTUA, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa noted that part of the modalities the group has put in place is to map out strategies to tackle issues of extortion and harassment  by government agencies along the ports corridors.

Inuwa said that the group will also put in place measures to tackle smooth flow traffic along the corridors.