Apapa gridlock: Reps accuse presidential task force of extortion

The House of Representatives has said the Federal Government should pay attention to the construction of access roads linking seaports in the Apapa area of Lagos State.

It also accused the presidential task force set up to decongest the ports of extortion and worsening the gridlock in the area.

The House specifically asked that a greater part of two months revenue generated by the Apapa Port, TinCan Island Port, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal and PTML be committed to the construction of all the access roads for optimal revenue for the country.

In addition, the House urged the Nigerian Ports Authority and relevant security agencies to halt extortion activities going on at the ports and the access roads.

The House further urged the Federal Government to ‘immediately disband the Presidential Task Force on the Ports Access Roads, having outlived its usefulness and for participating in extortion and contributing to congestion of the ports access roads’.

These are parts of the resolutions passed at the plenary on Wednesday following a unanimous adoption of a motion moved by a member, Mr Leke Abejide.

The Presidency had in May 2019 set up a task force headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to clear up the gridlock in Apapa and its environs within two weeks.

The task force had in November claimed that there was no gridlock in Apapa, but  an ‘in-port congestion’.

The PTT Vice Chairman, Kayode Opeifa, at a virtual dialogue held by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, debunked media reports about traffic congestion in Apapa, referring to it as a non-recurring traffic.

Abejide, while moving the motion, noted that the House Committee on Customs and Excise recently embarked on a week-long oversight of Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service Command to ascertain the level of revenue generation and the challenges, as well as to find a way of addressing them using Customs budget of 2021. Punch