NARTO Protests Against Unfriendly Business Environment, Extortions By Lagos Enforcement Agencies

·       Activists In Tincan Port Indict NPA, Others Over Truck Owners Pressure 

The task force committee of the Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has registered their discontent with the Lagos State government and its agencies for alleged extortion and unfriendly business environment.
Chairman, Lagos State Taskforce of NARTO, Hassan Adekoya and members of the association expressed their displeasure while protesting against the government’s highhandedness, describing the spate of extortions as ‘alarming.’
Adekoya, who spoke to journalists in an interview, said it is no longer going well for them and truck owners, lamenting that they were tired of paying law enforcement officers outrageous bills in carrying out their activities.
The protesters asked the Lagos State government to review the unfriendly policies meted on them by the handlers of the trucking activities in Apapa and Tin Can axis.
“We are here to draw President Muhammadu Buhari and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwoolu’s attention to the situation in Apapa because the way and manner of operation around Apapa axis are no longer going well for us and the truck owners.

“We have several enforcement teams that extort our members and hijack our truck unlawfully. They slam us outrageous bills ranging from between N200, 000 and N300, 000. It takes us three months for our export trucks to access the port and we are tired of these.
“We are tired of NPA and its policies. All the policies are not good for the industry. We need a review of operations at the terminals, terminal owners, NPA, ETO and TTP, because we are really tired.

“The governor has done his best, the enforcement team is nothing to write home about. They are not serving the state or the nation. By now, extortion has been legalised in Apapa daily. Extortion takes place in almost all the checking points. We are supposed to go in with ETO/TTP app for N10, 000. At the moment, it had been increased to N20, 000 and N30, 000,” he said.
Adekoya said the fundamental causes of inflation in the country could be attributed to alleged immoralities in the NPA, law enforcement agents and APMT, which are in charge of the terminals.
“The N200, 000 and N300, 000 we paid are in cash, which is not even remitted to government’s coffers. That is why we have to buy everything at a high price on the streets, because of the ripple effects of the immoral acts,” he added
One of the protesters, a truck owner, identified as Collins, who is also a driver, said the ETO online queuing system software was good and the workers of the software are also good, stressing that since they were under NPA, which designed the software back end, they were not working optimally.
“NPA has decided to frustrate the activities of transporters, exporters, importers and everybody operating within the port of the federation. The Apapa and Tincan axis ports have decided to frustrate us and have achieved that, technically speaking.
“They brought the ETO (Queuing system software), which is perfectly good and the workers of the software are good. They are doing their best, but they are not operating optimally since they are under the NPA. They take instructions from NPA and NPA has been frustrating the business for a long time.
“NPA suddenly decided to shut down the portal for exporting. They told us that export trucks will not be going to enter the port. They did it two times. The first time was for two weeks and the second time was for three weeks. They told us we are not going to export our commodities in this country.
“The terminal operators are not also helping matters. They are killing the business. APMT in charge of the terminals can wake up one morning and tell us they can’t accept export containers in this country. You see so many drivers are being frustrated in the line. When you are frustrated in the line, you know the worst part, you can’t even go anywhere.
“You see a team called an abandoned team, they come to tow our truck and call it abandoned truck having frustrated the drivers on the queue. They slammed us with a fine of between N300, 000 to N400, 000 after frustrating us deliberately,” Collins said.
Speaking further, he said: “If you ask them who is in charge of these abandoned narratives, nobody will give you a direct answer. Ask any driver driving a container truck about their experience, just go there and do your findings, everybody is frustrated in Apapa.
The government should set up a wider stakeholder that would encompass the transporters, importers, exporters, the custom license agents, and the terminal operators, we have to sit on a round table and talk this out.”

Chairman, Apapa, unit of NARTO, Wale Oladehinde, also added his voice and said the reason for the protest was to let the government know what they are passing through for several months within Apapa and TinCan axis.
“If ETO’s app refuses to grant trucks access to the port, thereby occupying some spaces, because it didn’t move, this committee would say the trucks were abandoned, the team will then slam us with an outrageous fine.
“We want the Lagos State government to assist us to stop the extortions of our members, illegal towing of our trucks in the name of being abandoned. We want the government to sanitise Apapa and the Tin Can axis.
“We appreciate the effort of Governor Sanwo-Olu in making Apapa axis free of traffic gridlock, some government officials are sabotaging the government’s efforts, due to their selfish interests, because of what they want to gain,” Oladehinde said.
Vice-chairman of Lagos State chapter of NARTO, Ibrahim Lawal, also alleged extortion of truckers, saying Governor Sanwo-Olu, who deployed law enforcement officers to Tin Can and Apapa axis was not aware of their atrocities, hence they staged the protest to keep the government informed about their atrocities so they could frustrate the proposed stakeholders’ dialogue.
Director of Complaints and Protests in the Office of the Civic Engagement, Obey Kolawole, who received the hard copy of the agitations on behalf of the governor, maintained that NARTO’s previous letters addressed to the state government would be reviewed and revisited.