By Godfrey Bivbere

THE Association of Maritime Truck Owners, AMATO, has protested the planned dislodgement of truckers using Abuja Truck Park at Tincan First Gate by the Lagos State Environmental Task-Force.

AMATO’s protest letter signed by its President, Remi Ogungbemi, and made available to Vanguard Maritime Report, noted that no alternative has been made for the truckers before the planned dislodgement.

AMATO in the statement pointed out: “The plan by the Lagos State Environmental Task-Force to forcefully dislodge the truckers using Abuja Truck Park at Tin-can first gate without providing an alternative is ill advised, especially at a time like this when most of the roads and bridges are being used as parking lots for the trucks that are waiting to enter the port either to pick cargo or going into the Port with export laden containers or returning empty containers into the ports.

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“The travails of truckers in Maritime industry started when the original places that were earmarked and designed to serve as truck park were concessioned to other business activities. Up till around 1997 before the concession, hardly could you find a single truck that parked on the roads or bridges, because then, the foundation of the port was still intact, but now that the foundation has been tampered with by the forceful removal of truckers from the port plan/foundation, the original system has collapsed.

“That is why today you see trucks parking on roads and bridges, and the port can not operate without the trucks and the trucks must come from somewhere. In our opinion, this is the time we should be talking and working on how to build modern/befitting truck terminals to serve the ports, but ironically, what most  people in authority always say is that provision of truck park is the responsibility of the owner of the trucks. They are forgetting that entries provide parking spaces for their customers. They also forgot that Lagos is a State that harboured the two major ports in Nigeria.”

“Now, all hands should be on deck in search of locations where we can site some modern and befitting truck parks, so as to remove all the trucks that are littering the highways, bridges, many streets and crannies within Lagos metropolis. We think it would sound better if the plan is to restructure the place to accommodate more trucks for the sake of economy because trucks are the movers of the economy of any nation.

“Imagine, trucks moves all food items, building materials, raw material for factories,  while petroleum tankers lift petroleum used to power almost 90% of all engines. Therefore, I on behalf of all maritime truckers, plead for leniency, lest more roads and bridges streets becoming parking lots as been experience around Ijora, Orile, Amuwo, Amukoko, Badia, Coker, Oshodi Apapa express, Costain etc,” he noted.