Apapa residents send SOS to govts

Residents of Apapa Government Reserved area (AGRA), have called on all levels of government to quickly come to the aid of the Ports City to address some pressing problems. Speaking through the General Secretary of  AGRA, Mr. Paul Odey,the  association  lamented that the residents of Apapa are left to continue to suffer the menace of […]

Residents of Apapa Government Reserved area (AGRA), have called on all levels of government to quickly come to the aid of the Ports City to address some pressing problems.
Speaking through the General Secretary of  AGRA, Mr. Paul Odey,the  association  lamented that the residents of Apapa are left to continue to suffer the menace of bad roads, unending traffic jam and the lawlessness of truck drivers.
He  noted that the people who still reside in Apapa commute by boat to their destinations. He condemned the indifference of the various governments to the plight of the residents, noting that, Apapa economy is collapsing because of the activities of the truck drivers parking on the road.
The scribe said that the truck drivers have frustrated every effort to relocate them from the roads. He cited an instance where a company; FT Global Logistics Services Ltd came up with a proposal to take the trucks off the road.
According to him, Apapa has not experienced any change at all. “The access roads are getting worse because you can only access Apapa through Apapa and Coconut bridges. The current Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, is familiar with our plights because he frequented Apapa while he was the governor of Lagos, though he could only come on Sundays because of the traffic situation,” he said.
He added that, “If one part of the body is bad, it would affect the other parts of the body. The access roads are in a terrible state, therefore the other infrastructure are collapsing. Why in the world would public money be spent to fix roads only for individuals to damage them? Are we running a country where you cannot even designate where trucks would park?”
He lamented that policemen and other security agents that ought to be doing more legitimate duties are directing traffic. The AGRA boss noted that the Truck Park opposite Tin Can Island that has been under construction since the days of the Late President Umaru Yar’ Adua was still at phase one because of a dubious new bridge being constructed just beside the Liverpool bridge that connects Apapa with Tin Can Island.
Odey also complained that there are no street lights on the bridges that lead to Apapa, in spite of the fact that less important roads are now lighted.
Managing Director of TF Global Logistics Limited, Chief Chris Orode, told our correspondent  that his firm came up with three-pronged approach to curb traffic jam in the ports city,adding that  the first approach was to create an alternative parking lot, introduce an electronic authorization that would ensure that only trucks are on the roads at any given time.