Reactions have continued to trail the existence of the presidential task force deployed by federal government, to ensure free flow of traffic on the port corridors as well as evacuate all trucks from parking on Ijora the bridge.
To this end ,a coalition of freight forwarders and trucker under the aegis of Committee of Freight Forwarders and Maritime Truck Owners(COFFAMAT), has issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the Presidential Task Force to vacate port access roads.
The National Coordinator of NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko who gave the ultimatum in a Press Conference on behalf of the Committee members, at the Compliance Team Secretariat in Lagos Tuesday said the Presidential Task Team on Traffic control has failed in their duties hence congestion in Apapa and the port corridors had witnessed horrible dimension.
Tanko accused the taskforce of extorting money from truckers between N150, 000 to N180, 000 before they could access the ports saying , “enough is enough, we can no longer accept it.
He said :”We own the cargo while the transporters own the truck. I see no reason why somebody will come and extort money from us.”
According to him, “We have written letters to the Governor of Lagos State. We have written to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, we have also written to the Task Team.
The NAGAFF Compliance Team National Coordinator therefore warned that henceforth shipping companies were to provide holding bays for their empty containers as no compliance would no longer be acceptable to them.
“We are giving them 48hrs from today to leave the roads. We don’t want to see anybody or the presidential Task Force team controlling our trucks for us. We are going to handle it by ourselves. By right, their tenure expired last 2 months ago, and I don’t know why they are still there.
“We have not been seeing the Vice President who is the chairman of the Task Force, and we have been complaining about this. The only person we have been seeing is the former Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa and Police officers.
“We have given them 48hours to go out from the road. We are no longer comfortable with their activities,” he explained.
Tanko threatened that they would be forced to withdraw their services if the task Task force fail to vacate the roads, adding, “things cannot continue this way.”
On why the Compliance Team became part of COFFAMAT considering the Team’s mandate, Tanko made it clear that the mission of COFFAMAT was in line with one of the 10-point agenda of the Compliance team, which was to expose all corrupt practices in the port.
Speaking also, the Chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners, (AMATO) Chief Remi Ogungbemi who attributed the rising cost of goods in the market to nefarious activities of the task force ,considering the cost of importation, clearing the goods from the port, conveyance of the goods to the owners’ warehouse.
Ogungbemi further said that the body was working with the economic regulator of the Port, Nigerian Shippers’ Council to ensure the reduction in the cost of doing business in the port to its barest minimum.
“We have no other country we can call our own. It has come to the moment of truth and we must say the truth. We that wear the shoes know where pinches us.
“I know government have been trying their best to see how the problem could be solved by setting up the presidential task team, but I must say that its is unfortunate that the agencies in charge of this Task Team see it as an opportunity to enrich themselves and anything that had a beginning must have an end.
“So, we are using this forum to appeal to the authority, right from the Presidency, especially our able Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sonwo-Olu, that please, enough is enough. We have suffered untold hardship in the hands of the Presidential Task Force, enough is enough.
“And not only that, we have also woken up from our slumbering slumber. We own our trucks and agents also own the goods that are in the container. We have sensitized ourselves and we want.”
