Apapa residents accuse Customs, Hitech of sabotaging NPA’s E-call-up
By Seun Ibiyemi
Apapa Landlord Association has accused officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the road contractor handling the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, Hitech Construction Company of frustrating the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) e-call up system that is meant to check the indiscriminate parking of trucks along the ports access roads.
The landlords who spoke with journalists in Apapa, on Monday, said that in front of Area B, Customs officers are stopping trailers to check goods that have already exited the ports, thereby causing a lot of gridlock along that stretch of the ports to access road while Hitech, the road contractor is also causing havoc by deliberately blocking the inward Tin-Can stretch of the port access roads with its heavy-duty equipment.
The Chairman of the Apapa Landlords Association, Prince Aderemi Olikuntuiyi, said that the persistent traffic congestion in Apapa and environs had wrecked their businesses and denied them goods and better lives.
He said Customs officers are compounding the menace by creating unnecessary traffic jam for vehicles that have been cleared and had exited the ports.
In addition he said, “Customs are not supposed to be checking vehicles that have duly been checked and cleared inside the port along the roads.
“That is what they do to us all the time and the worst happened when they brought somebody out of his car and shot the person. We are not even safe. God forbid if we are going out with our cars and they stop us and they suspect that the car is a smuggled car, they can shoot us,” he lamented.
On Hitech, the contractor handling the repair of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, Olikuntuiyi explained that, “Apapa has become endemic and we are not too happy. As you know, the road to Apapa and Tin-Can is being blocked by the road contractor, Hitech all in the name of repairing the road. The annoying thing is that, at night, they will open all the blockade and start collecting money from trucks.
“However, during the day, they won’t provide alternative means for vehicles to pass.”
He said that the first day the e-call up system was announced by the NPA, the road contractor blocked the accessible road at Flour mills.
“We have been pushed to the wall. Any moment from now, we would react. What happened in Niger Delta might happen in Apapa if this trend persists.
“That is why we are agitating because we deserve better living conditions. We can’t continue with this Apapa gridlock because it is affecting our daily lives, businesses and our social life,” he lamented.
He added that for years, the governments at all levels have forgotten Apapa community, adding that the Apapa residents are ready to take their fates into their own hands.
“We are synergising to go back to NPA to let them realize that all past Federal Government efforts at getting rid of Apapa gridlock has come and failed and that if by any error or omission, this E-call-up too fails, we that are living in Apapa will take our fates into our own hands; and the result might not be too pleasant,” Prince Olikuntuiyi warned.
