APAPA GRIDLOCK: Confusion, As Lagos Set Up Traffic Team To Complement FG’s Steering Committee

Even as the federal government , through the Minister of Transportation,Mr. Rotimi Ameachi had set a steering committee to manage traffic situation within the port corridors, the Lagos state government has disclosed plans to introduce seamless operations involving a team of dedicated officers from Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASMA), and policemen from Area B to take over traffic control in Apapa.

 

 

The team is to take over from the Presidential Task Force on Apapa traffic that has been working to ease the perennial  gridlock in Apapa since 2019.

 

 

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed this on Monday when he went on tour of Apapa and its environs.

 

 

 

The Minister of Transportation,  Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi,  had said that 200 security officers would be deployed to Apapa and Tin-Can Ports to clear the gridlock on the route and enforce compliance on truck not to park on the road.

 

 

 

The Minister said that there should be a Steering Committee headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Magdalene Ajani, to seat monthly until the challenges are overcome.

 

Other members of the committee would be from the Nigerian Ports Authourity, Nigerian Shippers Council,  MWUN, Road Safety and Lagos State government.

 

 

 

 

 

Observers have queried the multiple groups saddled with the responsibilities to resolve the menacing  traffic situation within Apapa and its environs.

 

 

Following the two constituted groups by the  federal and state governments , industry watchers have predicted that they may end up the same way the Presidential Taskforce Team did and might even compound issues bothering on gridlock.

 

 

They called on the federal and state authorities to synergize and agree on how to come up with a single team that would address the traffic situation squarely.

 

 

By Roland Ekama