Truckers Set to Shutdown Nigerian Ports Over N400,000 Extortion by Lagos Traffic Committee

By DAPO OLAWUNI

A coalition of Truckers under the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) are set to shutdown the Nigerian ports over alleged extortion by the Lagos State Committee on Removal of Abandoned Vehicles and the Special Traffic Management Committee and Enforcement Team in Apapa.

In a communicae issued by the three bodies on Monday, they alleged that these government committees have totally derailed from the purpose for which they were set up, and have resorted to extorting truck drivers to the tune of N400,000 and N200,000.

See the press release below;

24th February, 2025

PRESS RELEASE

NOTICE OF SERVICE WITHDRAWAL AGAINST THE ACTIVITIES OF LAGOS STATE COMMITTEE ON REMOVAL OF ABANDONED VEHICLES  AND SPECIAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE AND ENFORCEMENT TEAM IN APAPA

The acronym NMA stands for the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners NARTO, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria MWUN and Association of Maritime Truck Owners AMATO.

It is a tripod collaboration for promoting ease of doing business and protecting the interest Nigerian maritime workers and haulage operators within and outside the maritime jurisdiction.

We are constrained on the above subject matter to make this press release in respect of the increasingly provocative and exploitative activities of the aforementioned Committees

These two committees that were primarily set up by the Lagos State Government to resolve the problem of traffic gridlock have completely derailed from their raison d’etre by becoming a law unto themselves with indiscriminate arrest and imposition of arbitrary outrageous penalty charges that are payed into private accounts instead of Government accounts of ranging between N200,000 and N400,000 on each truck they forcefully hijack while on their way from Pre-gates to the Ports.

The above is further highlighted in the recent incident involving trucks released from Lillypond Pregate (being a major Pregate for Apapa Port-bound trucks), which the release of said trucks was authoritatively directed by the Nigerian Ports Authority through the office of the Apapa Port Manager.  Shockingly, all the trucks that were on the move following the directive of the Nigerian Ports Authority were flagged down by members of the two Committees and ordered to return to where they coming from, and some of the trucks were forcefully arrested and slammed with their usual unregulated bills.

In most cases the Trucks were being driven by them to their yard and later charge them to pay towing charges.

Furthermore to the above also, we wish to bring to your esteemed attention the disheartening events of Thursday 20th February 2025, at Area B Apapa during which members of the Committees alongside a contingent of street urchins illegally acting at the Committees’ behest attacked a group of haulage truck owners, drivers, and stakeholders who were in transit along the Apapa Port Road. This latest attack occurred during another bout of harassment, verbal and physical assault, and belligerent demands for outrageous amounts in penalties by members of these two Committees members.

Suffice to say that when it appeared that the trucker had no intent to comply with their baseless demands, the Committees’ members set the street urchins in their company upon the hapless trucker which resulted in grievous bodily injuries with victim struggling for his life in hospital, the matter is being handled by Area “B” Police station.

Additionally, in the early hours of 23rd of February, 2025, members of Abandoned Committee invaded Unity Bonded terminal were they hijacked over 100 trucks from Drivers on queue to drop empty containers and tagged them abandoned.

We do not know if the activities of these Committees are by reason of their written mandate restricted to specific localities within the Lagos metropolis, because we observed with bewilderment that all of their activities are mainly focused on maritime truckers and limited to the Apapa Port access roads/Oshodi-Apapa Expressway axis of Lagos State. It is almost as if there is a spoken directive to ensure the grounding to a halt of the businesses of the stakeholders in the haulage sector who are contributing to the GDP of Nigeria and Lagos State and who also have need to use the Port Access roads and its immediate vicinities in Lagos State. On the

The undue interference with movement of trucks to the Ports from pregates by these Committees is sabotaging Ports operations, ease of doing business and inflicting huge financial losses to Truckers for aborted trips, with Importers and Exporters forced to bear additional cost of document revalidation arising from arbitrary trucks impoundment by the Committees. Many factories/companies are forced to suspend operations due to inability get imported materials delivered to them as and when due arising from trucks hijack by Abandon Committee on the roads and along Ports access roads.

It is on this note we are saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH to the ignoble and exploitative activities of the these two Committees against maritime transport operators.

                 OUR DEMANDS

1. We consequently demand the disbandment of the two Committees .

2. Unconditional release of all the impounded trucks.

           AN ULTIMATUM

In line with our unambiguous demand as stated above, we hereby issue this NOTICE OF THREE (3) DAYS ULTIMATUM which would expire on Wednesday 26th February 2025 within which three-day period we hope our demand as above would have been granted. We wish to state further that at the EXPIRATION of the THREE (3) DAYS ULTIMATUM issued herein, and in the event that the authorities refuse to lend their ears to our plight and dissolve these two  Committees as demanded, we shall immediately embark on an industrial action and withdraw the services of all our members throughout the state.

Thank you Sir.

We look forward to  your kind and urgent attention to this pressing issue.

………………………………..
Secretary General NARTO

…………………………………
Secretary General MWUN

……………………………….
Secretary General AMATO

For:

NARTO/MWUN/AMATO
Collaboration

Cc:

Nigerian Shippers’ Council NSC

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