Stakeholders canvass emergency intervention, relocation of tank farms to ease Apapa gridlock

The entire seaport community and other businesses have recently been thrown into a state of devastation owing to the threats posed on their operations by the recurring gridlock on both Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Ijora-Wharf access road.

The gridlock, which has rendered Apapa, home to the nation’s two major economic gateways (Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports), inaccessible to port users, residents, motorists and other commuters, has become very worrisome due to the man-hour loss on the road. This is as workers are compelled to spend greater part of their productive hours on the traffic.

Currently, businesses worth billions of naira that are located in Apapa are counting their losses as a result of the man-hour loss on the traffic congestion, which is occasioned by the indiscriminate parking of tankers on the road as well as the deplorable state of the access roads.

The alarming traffic gridlock within Apapa metropolis skyrocketed years after the port terminals were concessioned to the private sector. In the pre-concession era, the ports had spaces inside which served as parks for trailers that did business there, but following the concession, these spaces were allotted to private terminal operators, thereby pushing the trucks to park and queue indiscriminately on the Apapa access roads.

In the last two years, however, the Federal Government alternatively started the construction of a yet-to-be-completed 1,000-capacity trailer transit park at the second gate of the Tin-Can Island port along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

The trailer transit park, which was supposed to be commissioned in July 2013 so as to ease the traffic on the road, was alleged to be delayed by Borini Prono, an Italian construction company that is in charge of the construction of the park.  

BusinessDay finding reveals that the growing number of tank farms (for the importation of refined petroleum products) within the port community helped in deepening the gridlock in Apapa that is already occupied by industries and seaports.  

The security risk of the gridlocks on the port users and Apapa residents has been life-endangering such that there have been reported attacks by hoodlums on commuters and vehicles trapped in the traffic, especially in the Mile 2 and Ijora axes of the road.

The damage tankers are bringing upon port users and other Apapa road users has become more than their contribution to petroleum haulage, according to stakeholders, who say there is need to relocate tank farms to places like Epe, Badagry and even Warri, and also restrict new industries from developing in Apapa.

Vicky Haastrup, chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), who blamed the springing of tank farms for the congestion in Apapa, urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue of port users by relocating the tank farms out of Apapa.

“The traffic congestion in Apapa has been a bad experience to all and we use this opportunity to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (minister of finance) and Mike Onolememen (minister of works) to declare Apapa metropolis a disaster area,” said Tony Anakebe, a maritime analyst, in an interview with BusinessDay.

“Apapa is so congested that the lives and property in there are in danger should any misfortunate occur in Apapa,” Anakebe said.

He said the minister of works needed to urgently pay an unannounced visit to Apapa to understand the plight of Nigerians due to the blockage of the road by tanker drivers and the deplorable state of both Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Ijora-Wharf road.

Anakebe, who urged the government to embargo the development of new industries in Apapa, also lamented the huge impact of the gridlock on cargo clearance. He referred to the man-hour loss on the road, where what should ordinarily be a 15-minute journey from Mile 2 has become a ‘nightmare’, adding that the gridlock had become an emergency situation that deserved an emergency intervention. 

To handle the situation, he suggested that the Federal Government should put a good management structure in place to manage the indiscriminate parking of tankers and trucks on the roads.

“Secondly, Borini Prono, which is the construction company contracted to repair the road from Sunrise bus-stop to Liverpool and build the transit park at the Tin-Can Island port, should be called to order to keep to the terms of the contract or be relieved of the contract if the contract has not been paid for, because the contractor has not been at site since January this year,” he said.

Uzoamaka Anagor