Mr Mike Egbayelo, former Deputy Secretary, Apapa Security Trust Fund, has urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to review the electronic call-up system for trucks to tackle the Apapa gridlock.
Egbayelo said in Lagos that the electronic call-up structure was not working and needed to be reviewed.
He also stressed the need to eradicate the network of corruption due to traffic management mechanism.
“The residents experience a lot of stress coming into Apapa and sometimes cannot meet up with their appointments.
“Some of us have relocated our offices out of Apapa and we are not really happy about that,” he said.
He noted that due to the gridlock on Apapa road, truck drivers now resort to using any available space for convenience.
Egbayelo said the development was causing serious negative environmental and health hazards to the residents.
He added that the gridlock had affected business activities negatively and made life unbearable for the residents.
“The impact on the economy is so huge that we have so many losses, so many companies have closed down, and the impact on the environment is so bad.
“Due to the gridlock, we have drivers using all the available space as convenience and this poses serious threat to the residents,” he said.
Also, Mr Peter Obayi, a bus driver, said the many hours spent in going to Apapa wears him off.
Obayi noted that a trip from Cele to Apapa that used to take at least one and half hours now takes up to three hours and even more.
He urged government to hasten the road construction to help alleviate the sufferings of the people plying the route.
A banker, Mrs Opeyemi Ogundeji, said that the gridlock was a nightmare for her as that was what she usually faced every day going to work.
“Coming from Apapa to Maza-maza to my place of work on a motorcycle every day is very dangerous and difficult, especially when trucks are lined up with no space for even the motorcycle to pass.
“Atimes, I get down from the motorcycle and trek to another spot just to pass the gridlock and continue with my journey to the office,” Ogundeji said.
The electronic truck call-up system, also known as Eto, was introduced by the NPA on Feb. 27 for the management of truck movement.
All trucks doing business at the ports will be required to park at the approved truck parks until they are called up into the port through the Eto app.
The Eto app will be responsible for the scheduling, entry and exit of all trucks into the ports.
Unfortunately, since the introduction of the Eto app, it has been saddled with many challenges as the gridlock still persists.
