Individuals, private organizations and law enforcement officers trying to thwart the recently adopted electronic call-up mechanism that helped to bring sanity to Apapa and the port community would have to deal with the state government of Lagos.
The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said that his government would stop at nothing by revealing and dragging such a party into public opprobrium – identifying and humiliating them, as Lagos could not afford to return to the dark days of Apapa.
“I’m telling it to the camera now that we’re not going to hesitate at all to make sure that anyone else is trying to drive us back to where we’re coming from on the gridlock in Apapa; we’re going to do whatever we can to tackle them. We’ll name and shame them, whether they’re a corporate organization, a corporation, a police officer or a state official at Lagos,” Sanwo-Olu said while commissioning the remodeled Lekki first, second, and Abraham Adesanya roundabouts on the Lekki-Ajah corridor on Wednesday.
The electronic call-up scheme, which became operational on 27 February, enables only trucks cleared by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to travel to the port of Apapa from any of the eight approved truck parks inside and outside the metropolis of Lagos.
As a result, trucks formerly parked on roads and bridges with the resulting constant gridlock are no longer permitted. The state government, working with the NPA and other partners, including the Nigerian Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has already deployed some 500 operatives to track and implement traffic flow around Apapa, with that axis already witnessing free movement of people, trucks and goods.
According to Sanwo-Olu, the government can no longer condone carelessness in the port environment.
The governor said that his administration would follow a name and shame strategy to put any saboteurs in the new regime before the court of public opinion.
“Those who say that the solution we are taking to Apapa would not succeed will respond to the people of Nigeria and the state of Lagos,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor also appealed to SIFAX, Dangote, Flour Mills, Tunde Folawiyo Oil and other big players within Apapa to work with the government to resolve the Apapa gridlock.
