The Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) in line with the implementation of New Port Process Manual (NPPM) has expressed its readiness to engage and sensitize truck drivers .
The PSTT reiterated commitment towards ensuring empathy and sympathy for the truckers who are faced with depression and alleged drug usage.
Speaking at a courtesy visit to the Western Port Authority Police Command, Coordinator General of PSTT, Comrade Moses Fadipe noted that the task team will adopt systemic measures to engage the truckers along the port corridors.
Fadipe who told the Commissioner of Police, CP Jonathan Towuru that the PSTT intends to start engaging truck drivers and organize clinical sessions for them in order to train and re-training them on compliance.
According to him, trucks with call-up are supposed to be at pre-gates before they are called into the port.
He warned that moving forward, the PSTT in collaboration with the Lagos State Government would be towing such trucks.
He particularly lamented that the Electronic Call-up system of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was not working fully, and this was responsible for the high number of trucks littering the port access road under the guise of picking cargoes.
“The PSTT is letting everyone come onboard, we still need their complete assurance because we need all the players to be onboard fully.
“The Port Police are the superintendent of the port, it is their jurisdiction to monitor activities within and outside the port, so they are one of our strategic partners. We have just come to awaken that spirit.
“We are looking at sustainability, we have seen that we can do it, the will is there, and we have done it, but how do we sustain it”
“If the ETO Call Up system is working fully as it should, there should not be any trucks littering the port Corridor, many of the trucks are on the road claiming that they have the call up. Henceforth the task team in collaboration with Lagos State Government would start towing away any truck on the roads with call-up” he said
Fadipe who is a director the Nigerian Shippers Council said it is working on strategy in order to maintain the gains of it’s “Operation Free the Port Corridor” which was launched recently.
Fadipe tasked all stakeholders who are members of the PSTT to ensure they play their parts in order to sustain the momentum and sanity so far created by the Task Team on the port roads.
Fadipe assured that the PSTT is taking steps to alleviate the suffering of motorists in Apapa due to the slow pace of roads constructions and the dilapidated portion of the Ijora bridge which is causing heavy traffic outward Apapa port.
He said the team has equally contacted HITECH Construction company to remove barriers on the road from Tin Can Island Port.
“The step we are going to take is that we are following through, today, I would put a call through to the Apapa Local Government Chairperson, the Commissioner for Transport Lagos State, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, to let them know the concerns of the people and the expectation of the people from them so that we can all be on the same page. We want to see how we can alleviate the suffering of motorists along the port axis.
“Whoever is coming onboard, as far as he is statutorily constitutes, they are welcome onboard, the task team has a clear mandate to free the port Corridor of Illegal extortion and shanties, there are no two ways about it, so if your support is in that direction, you are welcome.
“However, if your activities negates these purposes, then the PSTT would not hesitate to invoke it’s rule of engagement on such agency or individual.
“Everyday we are distributing fliers and speaking with the association heads, in no distant time, we are going to start organizing clinics for truckers,we are going to start meeting them where they are on the road, and not we calling them to come over”
“We would appeal to their conscience, ask them their problems and how we can assist them, I believe that with such a campaign, we would change the psyche of drivers within a short time, it is going to be continuous education”
Recall that the PSTT has been on a one month break and this caused recalcitrant truck drivers to park their trucks on port corridor.
However, since the “Sheriff” got back into town last weekend, the truckers have started complying on their own.
Our correspondent reports that the PSTT on Tuesday also conducted clean-up exercise around the Tin Can Island Port, where trucks blocking the access road were towed off.
While receiving the PSTT team, the Police Police Commissioner, Mr Jonathan Towuru called on the PSTT to show some level sympathy for the truckers adding wisdom should be applied while dealing with the transporters.
Towuru also commended Fadipe and the team for the unrelenting efforts in sanitizing the port corridor.
According to him, some officials of Lagos State Ministry of Transportation recently came to the port to usurp the powers of the PSTT and even assaulted an NPA staff. He however said the police was able to intervene to the highest level.
“This should not be the case, that was why I wrote series of reports and the Lagos State Government scaled down the activities of that ministry”
“Anyone that wants to operate legitimately at the port should come and identify with the police first” he said.
He however, assured the coordinator that the police will continue to support operations of the task team.
Also speaking, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Adeleke urged the PSTT to looking into the traffic gridlock along Leventis to Marine Beach which is hindering exit outside the port.
Caption:
PSTT Coordinator, Moses Fadipe (right) during a field exercise on Tuesday in Lagos
