Police operatives from Lagos Task Force are at loggerheads with clearing and forwarding agents in Apapa over extortionist policy recently introduced in the ports.
Investigations by the West Africa Business News shows that police operatives are under the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration Agency.
The mode of operation is collecting N3500 from the agents on every vehicle that has already been cleared from the ports. For instance an agent told our reporters that a total of of 120 cars that came out of the ports and each vehicle paid N3, 500 per vehicle.
The police operatives who claimed that they came from Alausa were complained with Civil Defence operatives. The operations which commenced in the Tin Can Ports, early this month also covers Berger Yard, Otto Wharf Mile 2. In totality, the Task are raking over N30 million per week. A senior Freight Forwarder who would not want his name in print said his association are making frantic efforts to lodge complaints with that appropriate authority.
Earlier truck owners under the aegis of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, and Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, yesterday, protested the continued extortion by the Police and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, just as they called for a reduction on money collection checkpoints before the port.
To drive their point home, both associations blocked the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, causing traffic gridlock on the road.
They also chanted songs and displayed placards with inscriptions such as ‘Extortion must stop’, ‘Don’t give, don’t take’, ‘Enough is enough’, and ‘Extortion is corruption ’, ‘Stop extortion of truckers’, ‘Extortion is killing our economy’, among others
The situation left motorists and other road users stranded on the expressway for several hours, with commuters trekking long distances to their destinations.
Investigation revealed that there are about four unofficial extortion points from Mile-2 to Under Bridge, with truckers paying N5, 000 for a 20-footer truck and N10, 000 for a 40-footer truck at each extortion point.
At Otto Wharf Bus Stop, where a terminal owned by Ports and Terminal Muilt-services Nigeria Limited operates, there are multiple collection points from truck drivers, vehicles released from the terminal, vehicles that want to make U-turn to Mile-2 inward Oshodi.
That bus stop is mostly controlled by hoodlums, who collect about N1, 000 from every vehicle coming out from the terminal before being allowed to make the U-turn. In some cases, the hoodlums could engage in negotiations with truck drivers for several minutes, causing gridlock for other road users.