Seaports Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) has called on manufacturing concerns to evacuate their products from Apapa port by barges to ease the gridlock on roads leading to Lagos ports.
The Spokesman for the association, Mr Bolaji Akinola, made the call in Lagos on Wednesday said that some manufacturing companies used trucks to evacuate their products from their factories located in Apapa.
“Everyday, no fewer than 400 trucks are needed by Flour Mills Nigeria Plc to move its products to the market, ” he said in a statement.
Akinola said in addition to the manufacturing companies, Honeywell Flour Mills and BUA Sugar Refinery, both located within the Tin Can Island Port Complex, also attract a large number of trucks to Apapa and its environs.
He said that Honeywell, with a daily production capacity of about 2,000 tonnes also required 200 trucks to move its products to the market daily.
Akinola said that if government compelled the manufacturing concerns to evacuate their products from Apapa by barges, the gridlock “will ease considerably”.
He said: “The issue really is about the failure of infrastructure in and around Apapa. It is also about the failure of the roads and the failure of railways and inland water transportation.
The STOAN spokesman said that the multi-security task force, ‘Operation Restore Sanity in Lagos’, set up to address Apapa gridlock would not achieve its mandate until certain fundamental issues that gave rise to the gridlock are addressed.
He said: “The problem is that the road network leading to and out of Apapa is bad.
Akinola also called on government to de-emphasise the use of roads for the haulage of heavy cargo.
