Trucks owned by Dangote constitute nuisance  on Apapa bridge – AMARTO

Despite his offering to construct the Apapa-wharf road on a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fresh indications have emerged that trucks belonging to Dangote Group have flooded bridges leading into Apapa port, thereby constituting nuisance.

Speaking with Nigeriamaritime360.com in Lagos, Chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) Chief Remi Ogungbemi alleged that Dangote trucks constitute  more than 60 per cent of all the trucks seeking entry into the port and staying on bridges and highways.

Ogungbemi urged Dangote to order all his drivers back to his garage from where they would be brought into the port through the manual call-up system recently introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)

He also appealed to owners of other articulated trucks to take advantage of the NPA manual call up system, pending the introduction of the electronic call up system.

“I am appealing to every truck owner including Dangote himself, about 60% of the trucks that are on the Eko Bridge now belongs to Dangote. It is not that Dangote has no money, he has the money to acquire truck parks, he has his own truck park, but because there is no regulation, there is nothing to control their movement and inform them when it is their turn to come, that is why you see most of these trucks on the roads and bridges”

“We should all imbibe the newly introduced call up system, either you are coming with empty containers or empty flat body to go and take import, or you are bringing export into the port, you must go to NPA to obtain the manual call up. It is only when you have received the call up that you can now leave anywhere you are”

“This is what I have been canvassing for almost three years, but I am happy that NPA has started seeing reason to at least start with something, pending when the electronic call up system will come onboard”

“There must be a directive from the authority that be, for all the trucks to leave the road within the next twenty four hours and back to their garages”

“Dangote should also go back to his garage and get this call up before he can move. I am not saying this to castigate Dangote, he is one of the Nigerians that I hold in high esteem, this is because he has created a lot of employment, he is one of the persons fighting crime, the best way to fight crime is to keep the idle hands busy” Ogungbemi stated

The AMARTO Chairman advocated that the Tin Can Island Port holding bay constructed by the Federal Ministry of Works should be sited as a truck transit park.

Hr argued that no truck should be allowed to park permanently at the facility.

He said trucks can only stay there for maximum of two hours before they are called into any of the terminals at Apapa or Tin Can port