The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, has promised to eliminate extortions of maritime truck drivers, illegal checkpoints, and unapproved parking of trucks along the road, among other vices causing traffic along the port access roads.

Speaking at a recent stakeholders’ meeting held at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters in Lagos, Oyetola assured the stakeholders who included leaders of various truck associations, NPA officials, the E-Call up system management team, and the Lagos State Government that the issues would be dispensed-with within one week.

The minister, who was represented at the meeting by his technical aide, Prof. Busayo Fakinlede, told the stakeholders who were mostly from the trucking subsector that a committee had been set up to review all the grouses and suggested solutions saying the issues would be resolved within one week.

He said: “We can see that all the stakeholders are here to make sure we resolve all these issues and you can see the passionate intention of everyone to see that this problem is solved.

“So, we are going home with the singular thing that all of these things will be things of the past.

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“We have already set up a committee and all the solutions proffered to the problems will be put together for the committee to review and in a week’s time, some of these issues would be resolved.”

When asked how he intends to sustain the resolutions arrived at the meeting, Oyetola stated that the meeting he was having with stakeholders is a departure from what obtained in the past, saying the people whose businesses are mostly affected are involved in the meeting.

The minister noted that maritime is germane to the development of the economy, adding that as stakeholders would not want to lose money, so would the government.

He added: “The difference between this and the past ones is that the stakeholders here are parts of the problems, we have the truck owners, terminal owners, and the other stakeholders here, it is affecting their businesses and they know the solutions. That is why everybody is here today.

“Talking about maritime, time is money. The stakeholders cannot afford to lose money so also the government does not want to lose money.

“The only way is for them to work together to find solutions and that is what is going to happen in the next couple of weeks because anytime we delay, it affects them. That is why this particular meeting is going to be different from the previous ones.

“The issues that have to do with infrastructure, those ones will take a little time but the solutions start from now and we already taking them one by one.”

Speaking, the Lagos State Government represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Sola Giwa, reiterated the state had earlier resolve on moving parked trucks out of the roads.

He called on the management of NPA to review its Minimum Safety Standards (MSS) on trucks, saying the scheme is not achieving its purpose because “there are many rickety trucks still playing the port roads”.

He added that it is important that the minister hold a meeting with the IGP to rid the roads of miscreants and police officers extorting truckers along the corridor.

“There are too many roadblocks. NPA security, LASMA are collecting money,” he fumed.

The Star