….As Lagos govt vows to sustain enforcement, seeks stakehokders support

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

lagos—Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, has decried the intractable traffic congestion on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway and environs, despite series of government’s intervention to resolve the menace, describing it as ‘worrisome’.

Omotoso, weekend, during an interview session with Lagos State Govenor’s Office Correspondents, LAGOCO, stressed that some iconic projects, being constructed by the state government, including the Lagos Red Line Rail, the Opebi Link Bridge and the completed 15 ferry jetties across the state, would significantly ease the traffic situation in 2024.

Speaking on the Apapa gridlock, Omotoso said: “People are saying that the system put in place by the Nigeria Port Authority, NPA, in conjunction with Lagos State government has failed.

“I think it’s technology, and technology doesn’t fail like that, it is the human element that is the culprit, especially in this particular case.

“The government says that there is a system that will make trucks not to go into the port when they are not called upon, until their turn to go and pick up, why would they go there, despite the punishment meted to those that violate this system.

“People prefer to get punished than for them to stay and wait for call up, they dont want to do that, and I feel that is bad and it’s something that all of us should be able to educate all those guys, who see themselves as bigger than the law, what I called the tyranny of the truck drivers.

“Recently, government moved in and seized about 150 trucks after they had signed an agreement not to block the roads and there has been representation from low and high places that they should release the trucks to them and we warned them not to stay on the road again.

“But I don’t know exactly the current status of the road now, I have not been there in the last couple of days to know whether those removal have any effect and if it doesn’t have any effect, I think that all of us as human beings need to check ourselves because if government says it doesn’t want something, it is a law
“And if your activities are a bit discomfort to other Lagosians, I think you should be ashamed of yourself that what you are doing is a discomfort to other people, all you want is to make money without considering others.
“That for me, is not the way to do business and not the civilised way to live among people. We will continue to encourage Ministry of Transportation and taskforce team to enforce the law and go after them and see that they don’t block the way.

“Apapa used to be a very beautiful place, if there is Apapa today and people cannot have access to it, property values will be going down, I think it is something to be worried about.

“And that was why Mr. Governor himself visited Apapa about two times and you saw after his visit, people behave themselves. So, it is for all of us to begin to follow the direction of the law. If people are not doing that, the chaos we see on Oshodi Apapa Expressway is what we will continue to see.

“For us as a government, we are not going to allow that to happen. Anybody who feels that his business must disturb Lagosians will have to have a rethink, it is not going to be allowed because there are laws against what they.are doing and the laws have to be enforced.

“The thing is that when you see trucks and you say you want to put the drivers before the law, you will see people threatening you, they are going to go on strike, and when they go on strike, there will be no fuel.

“It’s all blackmail that all of us have to agree that we must not surrender to, so if we don’t surrender to that kind of blackmail, I believe these guys are going to behave themselves.

“All of us need to ensure that we stay on the line of the law, so that we don’t succumb to truck drivers to dictate our lives.”