File: Gridlock as tankers shut down Apapa road.
…Give govt 21 days ultimatum to caution coys or face industrial unrest
By Victor Ahiuma-Young
Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has listed four shipping companies said to be responsible for the intractable gridlock on Oshodi-Apapa dual carriageway.
Consequently, the workers gave the Federal Government 21 days within which to call the firms to order or face industrial action.
The workers, in a statement signed by the President-General of the Union, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, accused the four shipping companies operating without a holding bay, in absolute disregard to regulations and standards which provide that a shipping company must have a holding bay before beginning operations.
The union claimed that the shipping companies deliberately delay trucks laden with containers to attract demurrage payment daily from already overburdened union members, truck owners and their drivers.
The statement reads: “It is with a sense of duty and responsibility that we wish to bring to the public space the inimical activities of some shipping companies in Nigeria.
‘’Lagosians especially are living witnesses to the continuous pains, danger, suffering, and intractable gridlock that heavy duty trucks have been causing over the years on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway with its negative economic consequences. We cannot continue like this.
“As a major stakeholder in the maritime sector whose members and activities have been negatively affected by the gridlock on the access roads to the ports, especially in Tin-Can and Apapa ports, we have painstakingly studied the causes of the gridlock and have identified the following shipping companies as being responsible for the gridlock.
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“These shipping companies (name withheld) deliberately keep the trucks and their containers as means of attracting demurrage payment daily from our already overburdened members, truck owners and their drivers.
“They operate along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and do not have holding bays in absolute disregard to regulations and standards which provide that a shipping company must have a holding bay before going operational. In consequence, these companies have converted the major express road to their holding bays and packing lots thereby hindering free flow of traffic.
“We are using this medium to call on the federal and state governments to, within the next 21 days, call these companies to order and compel them to stop using their private businesses to cause public nuisance.
‘’If at the end of the 21 days notice appropriate government agencies fail to address our demand, the union shall have no other option than take appropriate and necessary industrial action to protect our members and other road users, such as truck owners, drivers and the public at large.’’
