Gridlock May Return to Apapa as Navy Withdraws Personnel from Roads, Bridges

Chiemelie Ezeobi

Unless there is an urgent intervention by higher authorities, gridlock will again take over Apapa and environs as the personnel of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Beecroft have been withdrawn from decongesting the hellish traffic that often plagued the roads leading in and out of Apapa.

The navy said the withdrawal was based on the attack by truck drivers on naval personnel who were deployed to maintain sanity on the roads and bridges leading in and out of Apapa.

The truck drivers had on Monday afternoon ganged up and attacked the naval personnel on duty, vandalising the patrol vehicle of the Operation MESA and injuring the navy men.

According to report, the grouse of the tanker drivers was that the navy in enforcing sanity on the road had restricted them from accessing the ports in a chaotic manner.

The navy had restricted the drivers to one lane all the way from Anthony Bus Stop to inner Apapa, a move that was not welcomed by the tanker drivers.

On Monday afternoon, the visibly fed up truck drivers rendezvoused and stormed the Ijora Badia area where the navy patrol team were situated and attacked them.

When the navy called for backup, the Commander NNS Beecroft, Commodore Okon Eyo, urged them to stand down and not attack any of the miscreants.

He however, instructed them to withdraw back to the base with the vandalised patrol van.

A naval source said the decision was taken after the attack on their personnel.

THISDAY visited the Ijora and Marine bridge to speak with some tanker drivers on what ledthe attack.

The drivers alleged that the joint task force was set up merely to fleece them of their hard earned money.

Some of them who spoke to THISDAY alleged that what incited them was the partial treatment some drivers got over others, as they were often allowed to jump the queue ahead of those that parked earlier.

They also alleged that the security operatives had breached the initial agreement of passing the drivers with call cards, but were rather giving preferential treatment to some.

The withdrawal came exactly five months after the joint task force was inaugurated by the Flag Officer Commanding, Rear Admiral Sylvanus Abbah, at the command headquarters in Apapa.

At the inauguration, the taskforce in conjunction with the Lagos State Government, had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to tanker and truck drivers to fall in line or be banned from Lagos bridges and by-pass, which they had turned to their holding bays.

With the frustrated bid to find lasting solution to the irascible truck drivers, who had hitherto brought social and economic activities in Apapa and environs to a halt, the navy Tuesday said they were forced to withdraw given the attack on its personnel by the irate tanker drivers on Monday afternoon.

This was not the first attack on security personnel by truck dirvers on that axis. In January 2017, truck dirvers went on rampage on Creek Road, Apapa, over the death of one of their colleagues, setting two banks of fire.

The aggrieved tanker drivers had targeted the banks over the death of their colleague, who was allegedly shot by a mobile policeman attached to one of the new generation banks in that area.