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By Steve Agbota and Uche Henry
The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) through Port Standing Task Team (PSST) last week Friday commenced the second phase of its ‘Operation Free the Port Corridors’ program to eradicate corrupt practices, remove all illegal checkpoints, shanties, and indiscriminate parking of trucks along the port access roads.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony of the exercise, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Emmanuel Jime said the whole idea of “Operation Free the Ports’ Corridors” is essentially to rid the ports and Ports’ Corridors of inefficiencies and corrupt practices to enhance the ease-of-doing-business.
According to him, the first phase of the exercise, which was flagged off on 14 April covers the Apapa Port Complex to the SIFAX-Ijora Road corridor, adding that the second phase of the exercise will cover Apapa /Tin-Can, Coconut/Berger Yard, Mile 2/ Orile and Ijora axis.
“This is a 15.6km stretch of roads littered with shanties and trucks parked indiscriminately thereby causing untold hardships to other commuters and creating opportunity for extortions and other forms of corrupt practices by both state and non-state actors,” he said.
However, he said the commencement of the second phase is a demonstration of the success that the PSTT has achieved during the first phase even in the face of logistics and operational challenges.
He said the successes recorded were not without dire consequences including stern resistance, intimidation, the threat to lives, and physical assault of operatives, gadgets, and vehicles.
“A case in point was the attack on some personnel of the task team including the National Coordinator where they were assaulted and harassed. It is not easy to walk the path that the PSTT has been through these past few months.
“Many people had their reservations while others expressed their doubts as to the capability of the task team in successfully clearing the Apapa port complex to SIFAX-Ijora Road corridor with a view to bringing sanity and ensuring free flow of traffic,” he said.
Flagging off the initiative earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani who was represented by a Deputy Director in the Ministry, Mr. Adams Ofie, said the Ministry is aware of the major challenges of the Enlarged (PSTT) due to the inadequate logistics and operational needs for a more robust and effective mandate.
She said the task team is currently receiving attention in the ministry for possible intervention and facilitation on its logistics and operational needs in order to help a seamless implementation of the PSTT mandate.
He added that the purpose of flagging off the program is to solicit support from the agencies such as the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), NSC, and NIMASA, for them to synergize with relevant security agencies in order to ensure how best to enforce compliance
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator, PSTT, Moses Fadipe, said many industry players, observers, and commentators have acknowledged that its bold step to rid the ports’ corridors of illegal checkpoints and other forms of corrupt practices has yielded tremendous success.
“This is most evident in the sanity established in the movement of traffic in the outbound route of Apapa Port gate to Ijora. This route which is a distance of about 2.6km was the focus of the task team during the first phase of operations,” he said.
