TheNewsGuru

Tag: apapa

  • Gridlock: We are committed to quick distress response in Apapa, others – LASEMA

    The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has assured residents of Apapa and its environs of its readiness to respond to any emergency situation in the area, following the gridlock arising from traffic congestion.

    The General Manager of the Agency, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu said in a statement on Sunday that LASEMA is exploring various possibilities at ensuring quick and adequate response to any form of emergency in the area or any part of the state.

    He said: “The Agency is looking into the possibility of setting up a temporary dispatch point for quick and adequate response to any case of emergency, while the Agency’s bikers have been dispatched for close monitoring and surveillance of the situation for necessary attention when required. The Agency is also looking at other avenues for periodic report in management of any situation in the area.”

    He pledged that the government “is alive to its responsibilities in ensuring adequate safety of life and property” and would not allow any unfortunate incident to occur as a result of the bottleneck.

    Tiamiyu also advised Lagosians especially residents of the area to “remain calm and endeavour to call the 112/767 for any form of emergency.”

     

  • Apapa gridlocks will soon be over — FRSC assures Lagosians

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that the perennial gridlocks in Apapa area which had spread to other parts of Lagos would soon be a thing of the past.

    Mr Olalekan Morakinyo, FRSC Head of Operation in Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday that traffic lockdown was as a result of influx of tankers to Apapa ports.

    Morakinyo said that the situation was compounded by the ongoing rehabilitation of roads in Apapa area, adding that the gridlocks would soon be over when the roads were completed.

    According to him, many tankers came to Apapa loading bay without schedule, thus causing the gridlock.

    “It begins from lkorodu road and the Western Avenue axis to Ijora.

    “As soon as the road is completed all the corridors within the axis will experience free flow of traffic,” he said.

    He urged motorists to be patient and obey traffic officials to ease traffic within the short period of the road rehabilitation.

    Mr Semiu Oladele, a tanker driver, told NAN that the bad roads within Apapa area posed great challenges to their operations, resulting in the logjam.

    NAN recalls that stakeholders, comprising traffic authorities, transport unions and port users, on Friday gave the trucks and tankers parking indiscriminately 48 hours to vacate Lagos roads.

    Similarly, the Lagos State Government also on Friday asked trailers to keep away from Lagos roads until the resolution of the traffic logjam.

     

     

    NAN

  • Apapa gridlock: Stay out of Lagos, LASG orders truck drivers

    Sequel to the incessant gridlocks witnessed at the Apapa axis of Lagos, the State Government on Friday directed owners and operators of articulated vehicles/trailers and petroleum tankers to stay away from its borders for now.

    The state government in a press conference jointly addressed by officials of the State as well as members of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa, regretted that the incessant traffic bottleneck had impacted negatively on the commercial activities of the citizenry, adding that the directive would be enforced to eliminate the current hardship being faced by motorists.

    Addressing the briefing, the State’s Acting Commissioner for Transportation, Prince Olanrewaju Elegushi said investigations revealed that the traffic lockdown was a direct result of the challenges being faced by operators of the ports’ which had made it impossible for them to load the articulated vehicles/trailers that have come from the hinterland to evacuate imported items from the ports.

    He said the gridlock was worsened by the current rehabilitation of some major roads and other minor roads which necessitated the closure of some roads in Apapa, noting that the situation had led to the traffic bottleneck and backflow of the articulated vehicles to as far as Ojuelegba on the Funsho Williams Avenue, Surulere.

    Explaining the reason for the State’s directive, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the Apapa gridlock had also become a reoccurring problem due to constant breakdown of operations at the Ports.

    “Clearly, it is the breakdown of operations at the Port that is the monster causing this reoccurring issue. We keep having this issue of gridlock in Apapa because issues that the Ports Authorities and the concessionaires are dealing with are recurrent and the spillover effect of those issues are causing all these.

  • Again, Customs intercept, seize 1,100 pump action rifles in Apapa

    The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, on Monday intercepted another batch of 1,100 pump action rifles in Tin-Can Island, Apapa, Lagos.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the weapons, loaded in a 20-feet container were intercepted by the Tin-Can Island Command of the Sevice.

    The weapons, which originated from Turkey, were concealed inside the container whose Bill of Laden indicated that it was conveying hand wash basins.

    The Controller General of Customs, Col. Ahmed Alli, who disclosed the discovery, said that already a Customs officer suspected to have cut the seal of the container without following due process, as well as a clerk at the command have been arrested.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that this is the third time Customs is intercepting large cache of weapons in Lagos.

    Earlier this year, the commission discovered over 650 Pump Action Rifles concealed in iron doors and other goods shipped into the country from China.

    Till date, no one has publicly claimed ownership of the shipment.

    Also in March, the NCS seized 404 rifles falsely concealed as a Plaster of Paris.

    Details later…

  • Apapa Crisis: Truck drivers recount ordeal [VIDEO]

  • Breaking: Riot in Apapa

    The entire creek road axis of Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos is now engulfed in a riot. Vehicular and human traffic along that axis has been paralysed.

    According to reports reaching TheNewsGuru, unconfirmed reports say a mobile police officer shot a trailer driver in front of Diamond Bank after an argument to stop blocking the road. The trailer drivers in a reprisal attack have set both Diamond and Sterling Bank on Creek Road on fire.

     

    The trailer drivers in a reprisal attack have set both Diamond and Sterling Bank on Creek Road on fire.

     

    Apparently, the police officer ran to Sterling Bank to escape being lynched. The staff of Creek Road branch are safe and in the branch. The police men are still trying to bring the situation under control.

     

    Commuters are hereby advised to avoid the route

  • Apapa road to be shut for one year for reconstruction

    Apapa road to be shut for one year for reconstruction

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola says on Saturday that a section of the Apapa Wharf road will be shut down for one-year to enable its construction.

    He disclosed this at the official signing of Memorandum of Understanding and handing over of the project to the sponsors.

    The N4.34bn project is jointly sponsored by Dangote, Flour Mills companies and Federal Government.

    The two kilometres road construction between the Nigerian Port Authority and end of the bridge is expected to take one-year starting from Saturday.

    Fashola explained that the use of AG Dangote for the construction was to give the road a better outlook with the use of concrete, adding that the construction was to resolve the challenges usually encountered on the road.

    The minister, while commending the sponsors of the project, appealed to road users and stakeholders to persevere.

    “We are embarking on what will be the final solution to the massive inconvenience. Businesses and residents in Apapa and its environment have had to endure for a couple of years.

    “I like to acknowledge the leadership role of Dangote and Flour Mills who are operators and have also contributed to make this reality. They are doing this as a total Corporate Responsibility without asking for tax holiday or reduction. We are also working on how to ensure free access to Tin Can Island.

    “From today that we are handing over the project, the road will take one year to be completed. We need the cooperation of all the stakeholders. There will be some discomfort on the way but we appeal for tolerance and perseverance. It will continue to get better, people should please ensure more to solve the challenge,” he said.

    Engr Joseph Makoju from Dangote, said it was co-sponsoring the project to provide an enabling environment for businesses in the area.

    “This is part of our CSR. Businesses have to engage the community where they operate. Today’s CSR has gone to a higher level where we find ourselves embarking on a major infrastructural project,” he added.

    The Managing Director of Flour Mills, Paul Gbededo, urged the Federal Government to place priority on repairing other sections of Apapa.

    He also sought the cooperation of other stakeholders and road users during the construction period.

    “Apapa has become a very difficult place to work. With this project that the Federal Government has allowed to embark on, it will give succour to business. It has the biggest port in Nigeria and should not be taken with levity,” he said.

  • Photos: Apapa eventually grounded

    Business activities are currently at a lock down in Apapa. Movement in and out of the port city has virtually stopped as all the access roads have eventually collapsed. This is worsened by the ubiquitous tankers and trailers which have converted the entire stretch of the Apapa/Oshodi express way and the Marine bridge from the Western Avenue axis to a vast parking lot, cutting off all access to the city.

    On the Tin Can Port/Coconut axis, containers that fell off the trucks litter the crater-filled and flooded road.

    Only companies that have access to the sea and have boats could be seen open. Evacuation of containers and other imported goods from the ports has almost stopped.

    A staff of the National Maritime and Administration Agency (NIMASA), who asked to speak anonymously, told TheNewsGuru.com that the much dreaded evil day for Apapa is finally here. All business activities have been paralyzed as people can no longer access Apapa.

    “There is no word to describe the current situation. Apapa can now be rightly described as felled port town. It is now cut off from the rest of Lagos. All movement has come to an end while the government continues to watch and making promises.”

    He lamented that the city that harbours the nation’s major ports through which billions of Naira revenue are raked into the federal government coffers could be so neglected and made a subject of unnecessary power play.

    TheNewsGuru.com recalls that more than a month ago, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Raji Babatunde Fashola, said work would commence on the embattled road in a matter of weeks.

    He said private organisations have come together to provide the funds for the total reconstruction of the road. He said the companies provided about N700billion for the project but that the government was engaging them in discussions to know the terms under which the offer was being made.

    But to the long suffering and badly battered inhabitants and workers of Apapa, this negotiation is taking too long while social and economic activities continue to suffer.