Port security operatives and truck drivers today cripple port business over the illegal N1000 fee being collected at point of entrance to the Lagos Ports Complex in Apapa.
Troubled started in the early hours of the day when the officials of the port police and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) security operatives requested that the truck drivers must pay N1,000 before gaining access into the ports but the truck drivers having jointly resolved that they would damned the consequence by not paying the illegal money.
Their refusal to pay the illegal fees led to sporadic gunshots by men of OP MESA to ward off the drivers from the gate.
Some of the truck drivers under anonymity said the collection of fees at the Lagos port was a regular occurrence at the gate of entry.
The action led to about seven kilometers grid lock from Lagos Port’s gate to Western Avenue Road, Ojuelegba axis.
Many people working in Apapa community were forced to trek long distance due to the heavy traffic gridlock caused by the protesting truck drivers.
A freight forwarder, Austine Nwakpa said he had to trek long distance to get to Apapa after seeing the heavy traffic jam which was occasioned by the protesting truckers.
Though, Nwakpa acknowledged that there were always gridlock on the road ever before, but the one experienced today was heavy.
Reacting, the Lagos Port Manager, Mallam Nasir Mohammed who denied the allegation of fee collection by his men said he was not aware of the illegal fee in the area.
He stressed: “I am not aware of any fee collection by my officers, although there has been complains of delays from the AP Moller terminal.
“You should also know that many of these people are touts and motor boys who capitalise on any little thing to cause chaos but we have been able to put all situations under control.”
But, the leadership of the two truck drivers’ association resident in the port however denied knowledge of the protest.
The Chairman Apapa chapter of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners, (AMATO), Onyeka Emechebe, said he was not aware of the protest neither was the National President nor the General Secretary of the association were aware because they were all outside the state.
He noted that he was in the position to give details of what happened in Apapa because “I was not on ground to know the reasons for the protest.”
He said: “I don’t know what is happening and I don’t think the National President, Chief Remi Ogungbemi is aware because we are all outside the state.”
But the Divisional Police Officer of the Apapa Port Police Command, Adeleke Smith confirmed the protest and disclosed to our correspondent that it was under police control.
The senior police officer said his men were on top of the situation and the truckers are also going about the protest in a peaceful way.
He said, “There was protest by the truckers at the Apapa gate and they were going about it peacefully with no cause for alarm, it is under our control and the truckers are also cooperating with the police.”