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By Steve Agbota
Hoodlums allegedly linked to one of the maritime workers group attacked officials of the task team constituted by the Lagos State government during the clearance exercise to open up the clogged Tin Can port access roads, yesterday.
Daily Sun learnt that at the clearance exercise, yesterday, with the task team, comprising the Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee (LASTCOC), the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Police, witnessed the brutal attack on the members of the task team.
The task team had, on Monday, embarked on the exercise to open up the inbound section of the Tin Can Port access road, which has been clogged to road users as part of efforts to ensure free flow of traffic, enhance trade facilitation and seamless evacuation of cargoes from Tin Can Port.
The team continued the exercise, yesterday, to create and implement a single-lane policy for truck movement, to allow access for other road users.
Barely five minutes into the commencement of the exercise from Tin Can second gate, thugs allegedly belonging to Maritime Workers Union, led by one Taofeek, popularly known as Tao, disrupted the operation.
The thugs attacked members of LASTMA, Police, NPA LASTCOC that came to open up the Tin Can corridor, just as Taofeek threw a keg of fuel at members of the task team to set them ablaze.
During the incident, an official of LASTMA sustained injury and lost his phone, while the thug attempted to snatch a rifle from a member of the road clearance exercise team, but was overpowered and taken to task force office at Oshodi.
The road clearance team tactically withdrew from Tin Can port gate to prevent total breakdown of law and order and high casualties. There has been disunity among transport and maritime workers union on the menace of the gridlock on the Tin Can and Apapa port access road, especially the extortion of truckers.
While it is alleged that some of the unions are associated with the extortion of truckers and causing feud, the Federal and State governments constituted task teams of security operatives to address the issue, which did not achieve result.
The effort cleared the roads of indiscriminate parking of trucks, tankers and checkpoints to promote ease of doing business, trade facilitation and seamless evacuation of cargoes from the Tin Can Port corridor have continued to be sabotaged
To finally address the issue, the Lagos State government constituted the Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee, composed of members of the different maritime transport unions to help the security agencies salvage the situation.
The committee vowed to end the harassment and extortions of truckers as well and bring sanity to the port access roads.
